An expert panel formed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has endorsed asbestos testing standards for cosmetics that reject long-held industry positions and reflect those of public health authorities and experts for thousands of plaintiffs who allege contaminated talc products caused their cancers. The most significant recommendation [ … [Read more...]
An analysis of workplace exposures to asbestos at three steel mills located in the United States (1972-1982)
The objective is to present historical asbestos airborne concentrations associated with activities involving presumably asbestos-containing materials in steel mills. A total of 138 historical industrial hygiene air samples collected in three US steel mills from 1972 to 1982 were analyzed. The majority of samples were collected during relining of … [Read more...]
Powder Keg: FDA bowed to industry for decades as alarms were sounded over talc
At an invitation-only gathering late last year, U.S. regulators and their guests huddled at a hotel near Washington, D.C., to discuss the best way to detect cancer-causing asbestos in talc powders and cosmetics. The “Asbestos in Talc Symposium,” sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration [ and intended to investigate asbestos in talc powders … [Read more...]
Cancer in the classroom
[Lea DiRusso was exposed to asbestos while teaching at schools for nearly 30 years, then this teacher is diagnosed with mesothelioma.] Every week during the school year, teacher Lea DiRusso climbed on a chair and hung her students’ best work on a clothesline strung between two old heating pipes. As she tugged the line down to clip on artwork or … [Read more...]
Recall: FDA Sees Trace Asbestos in J&J Baby Powder
A shipment of baby powder has been recalled by Johnson & Johnson after U.S. authorities found asbestos in it. The recall comes after months of denial from the company about the presence of the cancer-causing substance in its talc-based products, The New York Times reported [October 19, 2019]. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration … [Read more...]
Hey, government people, have you heard about mesothelioma?
Just when you think it cannot become worse, it does. For many decades, we have known about the hazards of asbestos, as well as its relationship to mesothelioma and other thoracic and abdominal malignancies. We even see there is a growth industry among our friends in the legal world, with the emergence of for-profit firms apparently devoted only … [Read more...]