Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday that it did not find asbestos in a bottle of baby powder that the Food and Drug Administration said contained trace amounts of the carcinogen.
The company recalled 33,000 bottles of the product earlier this month after the regulator said it discovered evidence of chrysotile asbestos in a bottle purchased from an online retailer. Johnson & Johnson said 15 new tests of the bottle came up clean.
Another 48 tests of samples from the recalled lot, conducted by two third-party labs, reached the same conclusion, the company said. Johnson & Johnson is facing lawsuits from more than 15,000 plaintiffs who claim that the company’s baby powder and other talc-based products caused their cancer.
“We stand by the safety of our product,” the company said in a statement. It briefly halted trading of its stock on Tuesday afternoon to announce its findings.
This is a developing story. It will be updated.
Source : Nytimes
