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September 15th, 2015
Talc. That softest of minerals, dug from the ground and used by most Americans every day. Talc is found in everyday cosmetics. It is used as a filler in various pills and capsules. Talc is a food additive, found in many of the processed foods we eat. And, of course, as every parent can attest, talc is a daily household fixture during those early years of our child’s lives.
And yet because talc is dug from the ground, it can keep some very hazardous company - namely asbestos, which is often intermingled with talc and can cause fatal diseases in people who inhale its microscopic fibers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has long been concerned about asbestos contamination of cosmetic talc, but has allowed the manufacturing industry to self-police potential asbestos contamination. This decision has proven problematic since the U.S. imports large volumes of talc from countries, like China and Pakistan - two of the biggest suppliers, with notoriously lax safety regulation. As with most other imports, no government agency keeps track of who buys the talc, or how it is used.
In a highly unsettling example of what can happen under this business model, recent tests found stray asbestos from contaminated talc in some Chinese-made toy fingerprint kits and crayon sets putting children at particularly high risk for exposure. A child exposed to asbestos is 3.5 more likely than a 25-year-old to develop mesothelioma, a fatal lung disease marked by rapidly growing tumors in the tissue surrounding the lungs and heart, that is only caused by asbestos. It marks the third time in 15 years that the asbestos has been detected in crayons or fingerprint toys marketed to children. Popular brands, including Disney’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Saban’s Power Rangers Super Megaforce crayons, and Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Crayons, all contained asbestos fibers. Asbestos fibers were also found in the fingerprint powders of two crime scene kits the EduScience Deluxe Forensics Lab Kit, sold at Toys ‘R Us, and the Inside Intelligence Secret Spy kit, sold on Amazon.com.
Only the purest grades of talc are supposed to go into cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food and children’s toys. And many manufacturers say they only use talc with no detectable asbestos. But it is well understood that there is no safe level of asbestos and, according to experts, the standard tests are outdated and are simply not sensitive enough to detect asbestos at low, but still hazardous, levels. Technical panels from two standards organizations–ASTM International and the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention–are working to tighten test standards to keep asbestos from slipping into consumer products. But for now, talc contamination with asbestos remains a very real concern.
One target of recent lawsuits has been Colgate-Palmolive Co.’s Cashmere Bouquet powder, which Colage produced for more than 100 years before selling the brand in 1995. Laboratory tests found asbestos in samples of Cashmere Bouquet as far back as the 1970s, and air testing concluded that people could have inhaled asbestos when they sprinkled on the powder. Research has also shown that even though talc may contain only a small amount of asbestos, when a person applies it, those asbestos fibers linger in the air, usually right in the person's breathing zone, longer than the talc itself. Asbestos-caused diseases can have a long latency period, such that the full extent of the harm from asbestos exposure can take decades to manifest. So people who were exposed to Cashmere Bouquet powder, for instance, in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s may only now be getting sick.
Cosmetics have also long been a target of research and investigation into possible asbestos contamination through the talc used in their production. A 1976 FDA report charged that cosmetics makers had been lax in monitoring the safety of talc supplies. However, the agency ultimately allowed the cosmetics industry to also self-regulate and, despite additional testing in 1994 and again in 2001 that raised concerns for asbestos contamination, FDA officials have continued this self-policing policy for cosmetics manufacturers.
More recently, the FDA has asked the U.S. Pharmacopeail Convention (“USP”), a scientific nonprofit sets standards enforceable by the FDA for the quality and purity of drugs, food and dietary supplements, to revise test methods for screening talc for asbestos noting that current methods “have insufficient sensitivity to detect asbestos and cannot provide the highest possible level of confidence when used by suppliers of talc to certify ‘absence of asbestos.’”
In response, an expert panel created by the USP endorsed the call for tougher screening, likely requiring the use of transmission electron microscopy, a technique that uses electron beams to produce extremely high magnification of tiny particles. But there is no timetable for completing new standards, and a consensus is far from being reached with industrial groups.
One thing is for sure. No powdered products intended for regular, if not daily, physical contact should contain even a single fiber of asbestos. The deadly hazards of exposure to even minute quantities of asbestos, with its lethal, needle-like fibers, have been well-recognized and understood for over a century. Asbestos-containing products have been banned the world over, except here, in the United States, thanks to political pressure from an industry coalition of trade groups and other lobbyists.
So it appears for now that we can add shopping for everyday household products to our “up-to-us-to” list. Carefully review labels of the everyday products you buy to determine whether a product contains talc and contact the manufacturer for documentation of the source of their talc. Avoid buying crayons and other Chinese-manufactured art supplies from dollar stores and other discount retailers, as they tend to stock products more likely to be contaminated. Testing on Crayola-brand crayons revealed no asbestos contamination, so look to that brand if possible. You can also write to your elected officials to urge them to ban products that contain asbestos and increase funding for mesothelioma research. And if you believe you have contracted an asbestos-caused disease from exposure to talcum powder or other talc-containing products, you should contact and experienced asbestos law firm for a complete evaluation of a potential claim.
