by Vladimire Herard
Baking soda, corn and tapioca starch, clay and Burt’s Bees are among several alternatives to talcum powder, also known as talc and including baby powder, as the substance continues to garner controversy because of the links between asbestos, a prime ingredient, and cancer.
Facing down lawsuits in the last few years, the cosmetics and personal care items industry has had to turn to safer and effective replacement elements to talc as this mineral is found in baby powder, makeup and other products and contains the dangerous mineral asbestos, a known carcinogen.
According to research, as two minerals, talc and asbestos are mined together and have separate chemical structures and properties. Talc is composed of magnesium, silicon, oxygen and hydrogen. Asbestos is deadly but talc alone is not.
Among alternatives, corn starch is natural, absorbs moisture and has a consistency similar to that of talc. It can be found in the baking aisles of many grocery stores. With all of the suits, Johnson & Johnson has had to replace talc with corn starch in its powder products.
Baking soda, which is all too common as culinary white powder, is also known to soak up moisture quickly in cosmetics.
Yet another well-known replacement is tapioca starch, which absorbs natural oils and sweat, making it an ideal deodorant.
In fact, the recognized brand Burt’s Bees Baby Dusting Powder blends corn starch with baking soda and other ingredients to capture moisture.
A lesser-known substitute is arrowroot, which amounts to a soft, white powder. Its texture matches that of corn starch and is light and silky.
Still, another uncommon alternative is kaolin clay, a natural, mineral powder that works on sensitive skin.
The Food and Drug Administration made the discovery about talc and asbestos after completing research and a report on cosmetics containing talc in late 2019.
In response, the FDA worked with Johnson & Johnson and Colgate-Palmolive and other companies and manufacturers carrying Johnson & Johnson, Shower to Shower, the Gold Bond series and Old Spice and retailers such as CVS, Target, Walgreens and Walmart to recall such products.
In early 2020, corporations faced lawsuits, verdicts and settlements amounting from hundreds of thousands to billions of dollars.
Two years later, companies such as Johnson & Johnson had 38,000 court cases related to asbestos and talc and, within months, announced they would pull all such products from store shelves by 2023.
The suits stemmed from accusations that the companies knew of the contents of their powder products and their risks since the 1980s but failed to warn consumers.
Across the country, patients diagnosed with cancer claim that talc when inhaled or somehow absorbed or ingested leads to fallopian tube cancer, ovarian cancer, peritoneal cancer, lung disease and mesothelioma because of its asbestos material.
Overtime, in recent years, the American Academy of Pediatrics, a professional trade organization that warns against using baby powder, Cancer.org, the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the World Health Organization released research supporting the medical claims and experiences of patients filing the suits.
