Johnson & Johnson to stop selling talc-based baby powder in Australia
Johnson is moving its popular, but controversial, global product to a cornstarch base, and will stop selling talc-based baby powder in Australia in 2023.
In a statement to the ABC, a company spokeswoman said that while its talc-based range would be discontinued globally, cornstarch-based powder was already sold in Australia.
It said that as part of a worldwide portfolio assessment, the commercial decision was made to transition to an all corn starch-based baby powder portfolio.
The move came two years after it ended US sales due to thousands of consumer safety lawsuits.
Johnson said demand had fallen due to misinformation about the product's safety.
The company faces about 38,000 lawsuits from consumers and their survivors who claim the products that are talc-based caused cancer due to contamination with asbestos, which is a known carcinogen.
Johnson has denied all of the allegations and said decades of scientific testing and regulatory approvals have shown its talc to be safe and asbestos-free.
Experts like Professor Bernard Stewart from the Cancer Council said that the current evidence that talc-based powders caused cancer was very little and far from established. Johnson's Baby Powder, sold since 1894, became a symbol of the company's family-friendly image.
But talcum powder has fallen out of favour with parents who are now choosing products that contain other natural ingredients to use on their babies' skin.
Johnson spun off its subsidiary LTL Management in October, assigned its talc claims to it and immediately placed it into bankruptcy, pausing the pending lawsuits.
Before the bankruptcy filing, the company faced costs of 3.5 billion $4.9 billion in verdicts and settlements.
In one case, court records show 22 women were awarded more than 2 billion dollars.
A proposal by shareholders to end global sales of the Talc baby powder failed in April.
An investigation by Reuters in 2018 found Johnson Johnson knew for decades that small amounts of asbestos, sometimes present in its Talc products.
Johnson Johnson has always said that its talc products are safe and don't cause cancer.