Allaying "Anxieties in Government Officials, Physicians and the Public": Johnson & Johnson and The Lancet Editorial of 1977.

Abstract

In 1973, the Food and Drug Administration first tried to regulate asbestos in talc, provoking a vigorous response from the cosmetics industry, which used talc in a variety of body, baby, and bath powders as well as cosmetics. The industry's claim that asbestos in talc was not a danger gained legitimacy when The Lancet, perhaps the world's leading medical journal, in 1977, published an unsigned commentary that Johnson & Johnson called an "editorial" that asserted that there was no need for regulation because the cosmetic industries in the United States and Britain had made sure that their products were virtually free of asbestos fibers. The company also succeeded in persuading a nonprofit scientific organization to remove a warning from its Talc Monograph, in part by citing The Lancet editorial. In March 2026, The Lancet retracted the nearly 50-year-old unsigned publication that affirmed the safety of cosmetic talc. The editors did so after we alerted them through correspondence that the piece had been written by a consultant to Johnson & Johnson. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print October 1, 2026:e1-e4. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308708).