Document 70Mogqq7REvY0g2wKOjprapno

FILE NAME: Colgate (COL) DATE: 1976 DOC#: COL024 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Wash Post Newspaper Article - Asbestos Fibers Found in Baby Powder 'U E V 05T - Asbestos Fibers Fomid in Baby By M arian B urros - WsAh$aete T r* i & tasS W riter Asbestos fibers, which are fmrnrf in thousands of prod ucts from food to building insulation, hare been discov ered In nine of 19 body nqd baby powders Studied by re searchers a t ME Sinai Hos pital in Sew York. Asbestos can cause m e theUom a, a car them of chest and abdominal cancer, and asbestosis, scarring of lo o t. Horae. In 1&72 Dr. Wil liam J. Nicholson of ML S i nai reported that these dis eases caused nearly 40 per * cent of the deaths of Hew Ynric-Hfctr Jersey asbestos worker*." " D r. Irving j . ` SdiknH of ML Sinai, a leading expert on occupational i^sease, said, `We do not know a safe threshold lev el fob a carcinogen H ie asbestos." Once asbestos fibers raster th e body, h e said, they stay th e re . Researchers a t ML Sloafs Department of Environmen tal Medicine traded One sam ple each of 19 body and baby powdcTS. A rthur 3L Larger, beat! of the physical sciences section of th e de partm ent, said nine sample* contained asbestos fibers in quantities ranging.frtrtn *"2 to 20 per cent." The powders wilh the greatest eoncentratiqa qf as bestos fibers, zanstegfrunl 8 to 2fl njer erajL were Z sr Baby Powder with baby ofl. Csshnwre Banquet Body Taie. doty ' Airspan Face Powder m d BbiemSry Tile. Bauer A Black Baby Tale, which is no longer on th e m arket, had a 15 per cent concentration of asbestos f i bers, Hie researchers found. Sm aller amounts of asbes tos fibers--under 5 p e r cent -- were found in Phherge B rut Talc, Yartfley Invisible Talc, Yardley Black Label Body Powder, Mermen Share Talc and English Leather A fter Shave Talc. i tent of the powder, the ra- reard m s purchased seven Officials o f Colgate p rim . more samples. Five of them olive; which m ake* Cash- had-1^300 pprit or m ori of vstsen Bpuqnri^ BtetOng nickel; two had fewer than DirnggtHi^. pianiJartm er df 710 ppm. Langer arid re z B r Baby fM fd and of searchers "d o n t know If the C?btr rid ftad' a w certain nickel I* hazardous at high faiB- a*s-- ? p s-o^f la n a`--h-- v f -fa- n ajs-soer.u levels." They aridkm aahestoa h tfi Dr. F . WflBam Sunder- been found fit th e ir testing; man, Jr., head Of ths de T he -wyTorT^h f fy of Bose- partm ent of laboratory med m a rt A le 'could so t be icine a tth e University of readied fo r comment Connecticut and an expert The other powder* itnrHed on aided, said; "Weftre try w ere Amman* Medicated ing to find ont which nickd Powder; Avon Bird of Para eampwrnd* do.cans* cancer dise Beauty Dust; Dlaperene and which d o n t Certain Medicated Body Powder; n 1r\y | ffffBpnqiwtf m wnv Jtdmsoafr Baby P owder*, rinogenic when Inhaled; one made In England and other* raw not". one in th e United States; Jo h n s & JohnsoA as Johnson** M edicated Pow sociate director fear publia der; Mennen B ath Trie; affairs, Bobert KnlfiTn, said Y ardley A fter S unr* Ptnr- the nickel in the talc Is 'der and TanOey Original "harmless" tmew ^ ^ J* Body Powder. None of them biologically Inert" and won't contrinnd. asbestos. One, react wlfii body,tissue*. D laperene, nuriafacd no A study revealed last Sep ltUal-tctB. aI t la m ads of corn- tember h r D r.' C. Wagner of the Pneumoconiosis He- The Pood and D rag Ad search U nit St penarth, m inistration m id In 1979 it Wales, raised th e question would propose regulations about the safety of tale It to govern the nse of asbes self, the m ajor Ingredient tos-contaminated ta lc in cos in powders. Wagner found m etic*. The director of that a s h estoa-free trie PDA' division of cosmetics caused fibrosis, lung scar technology, H eins 3 . Ehs ring in the test animal "at mxtm. said recen ftr th e file same sate as asbestos." agency had not Issued regu lations because I t had hot have ritown that talc Work found a "fitst" m ethod* to r ers develop tricosis, anoth determining fee presence of er farm of lung luauiug, asbestos a t low level*; T he. fro m . exposure to large sophisticated method used amounts of the mineral. a t ML Sinai, electron m i According to SeHknfiy the croscopy, h a said, was too amount of tale that must he tim e consuming and expen inhaled to cause tissue star- sive. . ring or cancer In humans la The ML Sinai researchers. ' wot known. who have conducted the study under a grant from th e Rational Institute of En vironm ental HeaHf} ' Serv ices abac 1973, also laves-, 'tigxted fin powder fh r the presence of other m etallic' elem ents, fccluding nickel. W ith th e exception of. Bosemary T rie and Diope- j zene which contained nu nick d , IS of fl powder* ' contained faun 4 to 710 p arte p er m illion (ppm ) of nickel. A sample o f Johnm f t Baby Powder con tained if m ppm. Surprised a t w hat they re garded aa a high n ick d can- Powder