Earlier, an advertisement of the American company Johnson & Johnson was visible on every major TV channel of the country. In this, the mother used to apply baby powder manufactured by this company on the baby’s skin, saying, ‘Keep this powder fresh and active for your baby.’ For years, this company competed with brands like Dabur, Hindustan Unilever and Himalaya.
some time Earlier, an advertisement of the American company Johnson & Johnson was visible on every major TV channel of the country. In this, the mother used to apply baby powder manufactured by this company on the baby’s skin, saying, ‘Keep this powder fresh and active for your baby.’ For years, the company competed with brands like Dabur, Hindustan Unilever and Himalaya and Indian consumers also kept buying this powder just for its special fragrance. But now this ad has stopped showing on TV. The company has announced to stop production of baby powder from next year. The US and Canada have banned the sale of Johnson’s Baby Powder since 2020 after a carcinogenic substance was found in the powder. Although the company has always been selling the powder worldwide as safe.
Expenditure on advertising to increase sales
In fact, sales of baby powder have dropped drastically after the cancer scare reports. Thousands of cases have been registered against the company, it has also had to pay billions of rupees as compensation. The company has been selling baby powder since 1894 and spends thousands of crores every year on advertising. When businesses around the world came to a standstill due to Corona, the company spent Rs 334 crore on advertising in 2020, while Rs 434 crore in 2019. Worldwide, the company advertises more than 2 billion rupees every year to increase the sales of this product. Johnson & Johnson is one of the ten largest advertisers in India. Advertisements for ‘baby products’ are prominent in the company’s advertisements. In India also this ‘baby product’ is selling indiscriminately. Even allopathy doctors used to ask children to apply this powder.
‘Johnson baby powder’ linked to cancer
Asbestos is mixed in the company’s baby powder, which is found only near the talc mine. It is considered a cause of cancer. It is not that the company was not aware of this beforehand, but the company kept hiding this fact. All over the world, the company’s products have been claimed to cause cancer of the uterus to women. The US regulator had also said that carcinogenic substances were found in baby powder. In 2018, the news agency Reuters wrote a report on this, which said that baby powder contains carcinogen (a product that causes cancer in tissues). There have also been several lawsuits against the company in the US regarding this, but the company has not stopped selling this product, only announced that it will stop selling it after 2023. Along with it has also been said that its ‘this product is safe’.
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Asbestos is found in Johnson’s baby powder. Johnson baby powder is believed to cause cancer in the body due to the presence of talc in asbestos. The company knew this, but still it hid this fact and continued to play with the health of newborns by selling its product.
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Of course, the company may be claiming its product as safe, but in the US, many women have sued in court over this powder. Most of these women have cancer of the uterus. For this he has blamed Johnson Baby Powder. According to the American Cancer Society, adulteration of asbestos in talc can cause cancers ranging from uterine cancer to many other types.
initiation of charges
Indeed, allegations against Johnson & Johnson began in the late 1990s. A woman named Darlene Bran alleged that the powder caused her and her child to develop mesothelioma, a type of cancer that causes tissue damage. However, during the court proceedings after this lawsuit, the company neither made the baby powder investigation report public nor did the company’s internal records surfaced. However, the company later pressured Darlene to withdraw the suit. Since then, more than 40,000 lawsuits have been filed against the company in the US alone. In this, the company has also had to pay a fine of $ 3.5 billion, or Rs 28,000 crore.
According to the AP report, the company was ordered by a US court in 2018 to pay $4.7 billion in fines to 22 women. The court had held that Johnson’s powder had caused cancer of the uterus to these women. Johnson had also appealed against this decision in the Supreme Court there, but the Supreme Court also did not overturn this decision.
company hidden information
In 2018, Reuters and the New York Times conducted an investigation. It was found that in 1970, the company had come to know that some amount of asbestos was mixed in its powder. But the company suppressed this information due to fear of people and fear of declining sales. However, the company has been consistently saying that its products are ‘asbestos free’.
After this, the US FDA found asbestos in the company’s talcum powder in 2019, panicking after the company returned 33,000 cans of baby talcum powder. Despite all this, the company never believed that adulteration of asbestos was found in its baby powder. However, after continued pressure, the company stopped the sale of this powder in the US and Canada in May 2020. The company also had to shut down its production in India in 2019 amid allegations.
To avoid pressure after uterine cancer was causing millions of people, Johnson & Johnson created a subsidiary called LTL Management, which was held responsible for the baby powder lawsuits and declared bankruptcy. The matter went to court. All hearings against Johnson’s baby powder were then halted. Despite this, the company did not ban the sale of its baby powder in developing countries. But now under pressure from social media and the government, the company has agreed to stop the sale of products.