Baby Powder Recalled For Asbestos By NJ's Johnson & Johnson

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Johnson & Johnson is recalling a single lot of its baby powder in the United States after a test by the Food and Drug Administration found that a bottle of the product contained asbestos, the company said in a news release.

The recall is limited to a batch of the product with the lot number "22318RB." A company spokesman told Patch that a single lot contains approximately 33,000 bottles.

The spokesman added that the company is still gathering information and investigating whether the recall applies nationwide or to a certain number of states. According to the company, the FDA test found sub-trace levels of asbestos in samples from a bottle that was bought online.

Johnson & Johnson has its world headquarters in New Brunswick. What today is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world was started in the late 1800s by the three Johnson brothers, Robert Wood Johnson, James Wood Johnson and Edward Mead Johnson. The brothers got their start making surgical dressings. But the company's president and primary founder was Robert Wood; he was an outspoken advocate for improving sanitary practices in hospitals, as few hospitals had proper hygiene standards at the time.

For more than a century, the Johnson family have been pillars of Central New Jersey. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick still bears his name to this day. Presently, in addition to baby powder and other consumer health products, one of Johnson and Johnson's biggest selling items is Tylenol.

Unfortunately, for a company that got its start advocating for healthcare safety, in recent years Johnson & Johnson has come to epitomize the negative public perception of "Big Pharma." In 2016, they were ordered by a federal judge to pay $72 million in damages to the family of a woman who said she developed ovarian cancer after using their baby powder.

In April of this year, Johnson & Johnson was hit with an unprecedented $572 million fine after it was sued by the state of Oklahoma for downplaying the addiction risks of its opiate painkillers. Johnson & Johnson is currently appealing the fine.

In September, an artist placed an 800-pound opioid spoon outside the front entrance to Johnson & Johnson's headquarters in New Brunswick; he said his brother has struggled with opiate addiction for years.

According to the New York Times, Johnson & Johnson contracts with poppy farmers in Tasmania and supplies 60 percent of the opiates in drugs such as oxycodone. In fact, Johnson & Johnson even developed a special strain of poppy, giving it the name "Norman." This is the strain that produces the core pain-blocking derivative found in Oxycontin, said Esposito, who has long researched the company. Johnson & Johnson also owns subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals, also headquartered in New Jersey and which also makes its own opioids and produces the fentanyl patch.

And just this week, Johnson & Johnson agreed to a $117 million multi-state settlement for its vaginal mesh products. Attorneys general in several states said Johnson & Johnson knowingly hid the risks of its vaginal mesh implants, which eroded in women and caused them severe pain and infections.

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Johnson & Johnson said it's working with the FDA to determine the integrity of the tested sample and the validity of the test results on its baby powder. So far, the company said it hasn't determined whether cross-contamination led to a false positive or whether the sample was taken from a bottle with an intact seal or whether the sample was prepared in a controlled environment. Johnson & Johnson also said it doesn't know if the powder used in the test was authentic or counterfeit.

The company also added that years of testing its powder has shown there has been no asbestos in the product prior to the recall.

The recall comes as Johnson & Johnson fights thousands of lawsuits in which plaintiffs claim its iconic baby powder was contaminated with asbestos and that it caused ovarian cancer or another rare cancer. At multiple trials, Johnson & Johnson experts have testified asbestos hasn't been detected in the talc in its baby powder in many tests over 40 years.

Anyone who owns a bottle that came from the recalled is being asked to not use the product. Consumers can also call the company at 866-565-2229 or contact them online.

Reporting and writing from The Associated Press was used in this report.