Talc or talcum is a clay mineral composed of silicon, magnesium and oxygen. It’s basically a super soft stone (called soapstone) that can be found all over the world including the western United States, western Europe and the Himalayas.When talc is finely crushed it becomes the talcum powder that we know to be in our baby powders, cosmetics, some latex medical gloves, ceramics, paint, paper, plastics, rubber and insecticides. In the United States in 2011, the estimated production of talc was 615,000 metric tons with a value of about $20 million.For our purposes, we’ll be focusing on talcum powder, specifically Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder, Shower to Shower and Gold Bond Medicated Powder which may cause ovarian cancer. Thousands of women use this product for hygienic reasons in the perineal area (the area between the anus and the opening to the vagina). Additionally, many women apply these products to sanitary napkins, tampons and their underwear which also can become a cancer risk.
Since the 1970s, Johnson & Johnson knew that there were studies linking their products to reproductive cancers. Unfortunately, baby powder is considered a cosmetic, which doesn’t need to be approved by the FDA under the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The only warning currently on their product addresses that it shouldn’t be inhaled and that it is for external use only.Furthermore, in 1997 Johnson & Johnson hired a toxicologist named Alfred Wehner to be an outside consultant for their company. During his research, Wehner wrote a letter to Michael Chudkowski, J&J’s manager of preclinical toxicology, stating, “At that time there had been about 9 studies (more by now) published in the open literature that did show a statistically significant association between hygenic talc use and ovarian cancer. Anybody who denies this risks that the talc industry will be perceived by the public like it perceives the cigarette industry: denying the obvious in the face of all evidence to the contrary.”For decades Johnson & Johnson knew the risk that talc had on its millions of female customers and yet never warned them of the potentially deadly risks that were associated with talc based products.
Researchers have found evidence that talc particles may migrate to the ovaries. In an early 1971 study, British surgeons reported that they discovered that 10 of 13 ovarian and cervical tumors had “talc particles deeply embedded” in the tumor tissue.Dr. Cramer concluded from his studies that talc is a strong inflammatory agent and explained the link that chronic inflammation may increase a person’s chances for cancer. Cramer’s pathology team examined tissue from the ovaries of cancer patients under a microscope and found talc in the cancerous tissue. Although some women from his study didn’t have ovarian cancer, talc was still found in tissue from their lymph nodes.In a court case in February 2016, a Missouri court ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay Jacqueline Fox’s family $72 million in actual and punitive damages. Fox, a Birmingham, Ala. native, died at the age of 62 from ovarian cancer. She had been using Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder and Shower to Shower for 35 years and suffered over a three year period. According to court documents, one pathologist found that Fox’s ovaries were inflamed from talc which was deemed the cause of her cancer.
