On April 5, 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed that its third-party testing of cosmetic talc products for 2023 identified no traces of asbestos in any of the 50 cosmetic samples tested. FDA’s 2023 results, which were reported in a Cosmetics Constituent Update, are consistent with its testing for 2022 and 2021, which also failed to detect asbestos in any of the 50 cosmetic samples tested for those years. Read the full Alert on Duane Morris’ website.
Why Talc Claimants’ Experts Should Fear New Jersey Courts
Sharon Caffrey, co-chair of Duane Morris’ Trial Practice Group, is quoted in the Law360 article “Why Talc Claimants’ Experts Should Fear New Jersey Courts.”
From the article:
Cleavage fragments, or mineral particles that are found in rocks, can look like asbestos chemically, but they don’t have the same cancer-causing fibrogenic characteristics that asbestos does, Duane Morris LLP partner Sharon Caffrey told Law360.
“It’s not asbestos, and it’s … never been established as a cause of mesothelioma,” Caffrey said.
Visit the Law360 website to read the full article.
Testing Methods for Asbestos in Talc Will Be Subject of FDA Public Forum
On January 9, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it will host an all-day public forum to discuss testing methods for asbestos in talc and cosmetic products containing talc on February 4, 2020.
According to the FDA, the purpose of the meeting is to discuss testing methods, terminology, and criteria that can be used to characterize and measure asbestos, as well as what the FDA preliminarily states may be “other potentially harmful elongate mineral particles (EMPs)” that may contaminate talc and cosmetics products that contain talc.
Read more in the Beauty and Cosmetics category of the Duane Morris Fashion, Retail and Consumer Branded Products blog.