Ian Lavery, the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Asbestos has tabled an Early Day motion (No 58341) in Parliament condemning Johnson & Johnson for continuing to sell baby powder found by scientists to be contaminated with asbestos. Please ask your MP to sign it.
The background to the Motion
Both the US government and independent laboratories found that asbestos sometimes contaminates the talc from which Johnson’s Baby Powder is made. Johnson & Johnson has paid billions of dollars in compensation to women in the US who became ill after using its baby powder, or after their parents used it while changing their nappies (or diapers) when they were babies. Johnson & Johnson has withdrawn its baby powder from sale in the US.
In the past we have written to the chief operating officer of Johnson & Johnson about this. His office did not reply. Instead, we received a generic answer from Johnson & Johnson’s publicity department.
Motion text
That this House condemns the hypercritical and unjustifiable action by the American pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson which in 2020 withdrew from North American markets its talc-based baby powder, found to be contaminated with asbestos fibre by Government and independent laboratories, but continued to sell that product in countries all over the world including the UK; notes the billions of dollars that Johnson & Johnson has paid out to women diagnosed with ovarian cancer following use of their talc-based baby powder; commends the work of the Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK and its partners in highlighting the public health hazard posed by the sale of talc-based baby powder in the UK; and calls on Johnson & Johnson to withdraw that contentious product from sale in every country around the world.
Photo by Ádám Szabó on Unsplash