Johnson & Johnson rushed the testing of their baby powder products after asbestos was found in a bottle. The FDA found the asbestos during a routine test, leading to an October 18 recall. Trace amounts of asbestos were found in the baby powder after it was tested by AMA Analytical Services.
Johnson & Johnson released a statement on October 30 claiming that the company did not find trace amounts of asbestos in their products.
Reports from the Wall Street Journal found that Johnson & Johnson rushed the results. The company hired RJ Lee Group, a testing lab, to conduct the tests. The lab went outside of its normal testing practices to rush the results to meet Johnson & Johnson’s quick demands.
Quick testing resulted in complications, according to the reports. The lab had to use a regular testing room and a room designated for gunshot residue testing to meet the rapid testing demands of Johnson & Johnson. The regular testing room found no traces of asbestos, but the test results from the gunshot residue room found trace amounts of asbestos.
The lab claims that the results from the room were unreliable and that an air conditioner in the room contaminated the baby powder.
A second laboratory, Bureau Veritas North America, was also tasked with testing the company’s baby powder. The lab’s preliminary results did not find asbestos, but Johnson & Johnson announced that the tests for asbestos were negative before the lab’s testing had been completed.
The company claims that due to the serious questions relating to the FDA’s testing results, the company asked labs to move as quickly as possible to retest the samples.
Johnson & Johnson is continuing to test their baby powder products, according to a company representative.
The company is facing lawsuits from nearly a hundred thousand plaintiffs that blame the company’s baby powder products for causing mesothelioma and ovarian cancer.
