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talc 5/17
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Seventeen women with NM ties sue over talcum powder
May 17, 2016 | Albuquerque Journal
By Maggie Shepard
It absorbs moisture on baby’s bottoms and for some women on their private areas, but at what cost? -
Parents seek out all-natural alternatives for their infants’ skin
May 17, 2016 | The Post and Courier
By Lauren Sausser
On May 2, when a St. Louis jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $55 million to a patient who argued the company’s popular baby powder gave her ovarian cancer, Kelly Hartzell’s customers had some questions.
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Seventeen women with NM ties sue over talcum powder
May 17, 2016 | Albuquerque Journal
By Maggie Shepard
It absorbs moisture on baby’s bottoms and for some women on their private areas, but at what cost?
A group of 15 woman with New Mexico ties have joined a growing number of women nationwide suing baby powder manufacturer Johnson & Johnson, claiming the product caused their ovarian cancer. The estates of two women who died from ovarian cancer also joined the suit.
More than 1,100 women have sued the company so far, according to news reports. And a Missouri jury this year found Johnson & Johnson liable and decided by a 10-2 vote to give one of the plaintiffs “$10 million in compensatory damages and $62 million in punitive damages,” according to a Bloomberg Businessweek story from March.
Like its national counterparts, the local lawsuit, filed Thursday by the Branch Law Firm in Albuquerque, says Johnson & Johnson should have alerted its consumers with a simple warning label not to put the talcum powder products on genital areas.
The suit says more than 20 studies dating back 40 years have each shown a significant increase in cancer risk for women using baby powder containing talcum on their underwear and genitals. Johnson & Johnson even marketed some Talcum powders specifically for female genitals.
Johnson & Johnson says in its “A Message About Talc” post on its website that it relied on research that showed talc did not cause ovarian cancer.
“We also know that some epidemiology studies have reported an association between talc and ovarian cancer. However, various governmental and non-governmental agencies as well as other expert panels have reviewed and analyzed all available data, and none have concluded that talc can cause cancer,” according to the website.
Joshua Bradley, one of three attorneys with the Branch Law Firm working on the local suit, said he expects more women to join the action against Johnson & Johnson.
He said Monday that most of the 17 women in the local suit are from New Mexico or lived or traveled in New Mexico at one point. The women range in age between late 20s and 65 years old. They are also from various socioeconomic and racial groups, he said.
“In the (Missouri) lawsuit they discovered papers that Johnson & Johnson markets to black, Hispanic and obese women as their prime market,” Bradley said. “They have an increased risk of ovarian cancer as it is, but you add baby powder into the mix and it’s just a bad combination.”
His firm has included in the lawsuit two additional companies, Ethicon Endo, a Johnson & Johnson surgery product producer in Albuquerque that offered discount products including talc powder to employees, and Imrys Talc America, a company that provides talc from Chinese mines to Johnson & Johnson and also has a location in northern New Mexico. The Imrys mine in New Mexico produces perlite, not talc.
http://www.abqjournal.com/775026/seventeen-women-with-nm-ties-sue-over-talcum-powder.html
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Parents seek out all-natural alternatives for their infants’ skin
May 17, 2016 | The Post and Courier
By Lauren Sausser
On May 2, when a St. Louis jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $55 million to a patient who argued the company’s popular baby powder gave her ovarian cancer, Kelly Hartzell’s customers had some questions.
“What’s something a little more natural we can use?” they asked her.
Hartzell owns Eat/Sleep/Play, a boutique baby store in Summerville. She stocks cloth diapers and all-natural baby products. She opened the shop three years ago when her own baby was six months old.
“There was nowhere around here where we could find the products, where we could touch the products, where we could ask questions about the products and I felt like we needed that,” she said.
Upper-middle-class moms who can afford to spend extra money on skin care for their children are increasingly purchasing natural alternatives for their infants.
The Honest Company, which sells diapers, baby body wash and shampoo made without “harsh chemicals or synthetic fragrances,” demonstrates how women are flocking from decades-old, mainstream staples.
Founded by actress Jessica Alba in 2012, the Honest Company sold $10 million worth of products during its first year. In 2015, the business was valued at $1 billion, according to Forbes.
Meanwhile, local moms have started baby skin care lines of their own.
Stephanie Pascarella launched “Wash with Water” on the Isle of Palms in 2013. When her 9-year-old daughter Violet was a baby, Pascarella said she couldn’t find all-natural products on the market. “That was really the genesis for ‘Wash with Water,’ ” she said.
Her line includes shampoos, body washes and foam cleansers, all designed for babies.
These products don’t include parabens or sodium lauryl sulfate, she said, two ingredients found in many cosmetic products that may cause some babies irritation.
“One-quarter of babies are born with eczema or skin conditions,” said Pascarella, whose products are sold at Eat/Sleep/Play in Summerville. “With that in mind, skin care becomes even more of an issue of children.”
Likewise, Samantha Heithaus started her own all-natural line, “Green + Lovely,” in the Lowcountry. Her products are designed for infants and adults.
“Anything that you put topically on your skin, 80 percent goes straight to your bloodstream,” Heithaus said. “Shampoo — all the chemicals and stuff — end up in your body.”
The American Cancer Society explains on its website too little research has been conducted to determine the long-range risk these products pose or how many of their ingredients are absorbed into the body.
Notably, the Green + Lovely line includes an alternative to traditional baby powder. Heithaus formulated her product with arrowroot powder, not talc.
Talc is a naturally occurring mineral mined from the soil. It is widely used in cosmetics and other personal care items to absorb moisture, prevent caking and improve a product’s feel.
Several hundred lawsuits across the country claim that regularly applying products like Johnson’s Baby Powder, made with only talc and fragrance, to the genitals can cause often-lethal ovarian cancer.
Attorney Jim Onder, whose firm represented the St. Louis patient, said researchers began connecting talcum powder to ovarian cancer in the 1970s. Some case studies have indicated that women who regularly use talc on their genital area face up to a 40 percent higher risk of developing ovarian cancer.
But other studies have found no definitive link, the company said.
While the link between ovarian cancer and talc is a matter of scientific dispute, in February, a separate St. Louis jury awarded $72 million to relatives of an Alabama woman who died of ovarian cancer.
“That wasn’t a surprise, unfortunately,” Pascarella said. “Babies deserve from day one to have the very best on their skin.”
Johnson & Johnson has been targeted before by health and consumer groups over ingredients in its products, including Johnson’s No More Tears baby shampoo.
After three years of petitions, bad publicity and a boycott threat, the company agreed in 2012 to eliminate 1,4-dioxane and formaldehyde, both considered probable carcinogens, from all products by 2015.
While Pascarella and Heithaus have formulated cleansers and powders without toxic ingredients, their products come with a higher price tag.
Pascarella sells 8 ounces of her certified organic unscented Barenaked Babydoll shampoo and body wash for $16. By comparison, 28 ounces of Johnson & Johnson’s Head-to-Toe Baby Wash costs $5.99 at Target.
Heithaus sells a small bottle of her Natural Bums Herbal Baby Powder for $9. At Target, 22 ounces of the Johnson & Johnson product costs $4.99.
Kim Percival, a health and wellness coach in Charleston, sells products manufactured by Beautycounter, a California company that makes “safe and effective” skin care for adults, children and babies.
The Beautycounters products are more expensive than traditional drug store brands, but Pervical thinks the investment pays off.
“I’ve purchased them myself and I use them myself and on my kids,” she said.
http://www.postandcourier.com/20160517/160519553/parents-seek-out-all-natural-alternatives-for-their-infants-skin&source=RSS
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