Johnson & Johnson Halts Sales of Baby Powders in the United States and Canada

Johnson & Johnson (J&J), a U.S. consumer goods corporation, will end the sale of talc-based baby powder in the United States and Canada in the coming months. Only the inventory remaining at retail locations should be sold, according to a corporate press release issues on May 19.

J&J also announced that it wanted to continue to sell cornstarch-based baby powder in the United States. The talc-based product will continue to be sold in other markets, where demand continues to be high.

J&J halted delivery of the talc-based powder in March of this year because of capacity bottlenecks triggered by COVID-19. Production and supply were shifted to products in greater demand. Now the company has decided that it will not return to production of the talc-based product.

As a cause, the company cited the drastic decline in demand in the domestic market. At the same time, however, J&J never tires of emphasizing that its product is safe – regardless of reports in the New York Times about the 19,400 suits that consumers had filed against the company by the end of March. The suits allege that the company’s talcum powder, including its baby powder, caused cancer in the plaintiffs. We reported on the cancer suits in a blog.

We also reported on the recall in October of last year, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found asbestos in a product sample.

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