Johnson & Johnson to discontinue baby powder containing talc next year

Johnson & Johnson said its baby powder containing talc will be discontinued globally in 2023 and will transition to an all-cornstarch-based baby powder product.

"This transition will help simplify our product offering, deliver sustainable innovation, and meet the needs of consumers, customers and changing global trends," J&J said in a statement.

Johnson & Johnson stressed that its stance on the safety of its cosmetic talc powder has not changed. The company stands behind decades of independent scientific analysis by medical experts around the world, which has confirmed that talc-based Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder is safe, asbestos-free and does not cause cancer.

Tens of thousands of lawsuits
Although Johnson & Johnson has repeatedly emphasized the safety of talc as a cosmetic ingredient, it has failed to prevent consumers from filing lawsuits against it. According to incomplete statistics, from 2016 to the present, Johnson & Johnson has faced about 38,000 lawsuits from consumers and their survivors, alleging that its talc products were contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen, causing cancer.
It is reported that Johnson & Johnson has injected 2 billion US dollars into a fund to pay for claims related to the lawsuit. In response to these nearly 40,000 lawsuits, Johnson & Johnson has spent nearly $1 billion in litigation costs.

According to Johnson & Johnson's 2021 financial report, the company's related litigation costs in 2020 will be $3.9 billion, and the related litigation costs in 2021 will be $1.6 billion. That is, over a two-year period, J&J spent a total of nearly $5.5 billion in lawsuits related to products containing talc.

In 2016, Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay $72 million in damages in Missouri, the United States, to the family of a female victim who died of cancer after using the company's talc-containing talcum powder for a long time. It was also the start of a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder to cause cancer.

In 2017, Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder caused another $110.5 million in compensation. In 2019, Johnson & Johnson's talc products were claimed by 22 women with ovarian cancer for $4.69 billion. In 2021, the court sentenced Johnson & Johnson to compensate 22 women for $2.12 billion.

In 2019, Imerys Talc America, a major supplier of talc in Johnson & Johnson's baby powder products, and related companies (Imerys Talc Vermont and Imerys Talc Canada) announced that they had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the court of Delaware.

In July 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a criminal investigation into whether Johnson & Johnson concealed the presence of the carcinogen talc in its baby powder. However, Johnson & Johnson has always maintained that a comprehensive study has not found a relationship between ovarian cancer and talc.

In October of the same year, the US government threw a real hammer, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) detected asbestos in a bottle of Johnson & Johnson baby powder. Johnson & Johnson quickly announced a voluntary recall of 33,000 bottles of baby powder in the U.S. market. However, the recalled batch of products is only distributed in the United States and does not involve the Chinese market.

Replacing talc with cornmeal is a business decision

Trapped in the asbestos cancer-causing incident, Johnson & Johnson launched "natural corn talcum powder" in 2017. The corn talcum powder uses natural corn flour imported from the United States and contains 99% natural corn flour, essence, and tricalcium phosphate to ensure its natural sex and safety. This product is also the most suitable for children's daily use among the various products of Johnson & Johnson talcum powder.

Both corn flour and talc have similar functions for absorbing sweat and smoothing the skin. But more importantly, corn flour is more natural and safe, which is also the development trend of baby powder in the future.
Johnson & Johnson, which has always stubbornly emphasized the safety of talc powder, launched corn talcum powder, which can also be understood as the surrender of Johnson & Johnson to the market and consumers.
In fact, until today's announcement to discontinue talc-containing baby powder, J&J emphasized that its stance on the safety of its cosmetic talc has not changed. And claimed that it was a commercial decision to transition the product to being based on cornstarch.
With the discontinuation of baby powder containing talc, the "Johnson & Johnson talcum powder carcinogen incident" may come to an end.