How They Made Us Doubt Everything5 Aug 2024

Talc Tales: 5. Talc on trial

When we send off make-up for testing, the lab finds an asbestos fibre in two of the samples. Brunel University’s Experimental Technique’s Centre says they need to find at least 3 fibres to confirm the asbestos fibre came from the make-up sample, despite having strict protocols to ensure their lab is not the source of the contamination.

This isn’t the first test of this kind. Back in 2021, the UK government’s Office for Product Safety and Standards ordered tests of 60 low-cost eye shadows and face powders and 24 child appealing make up products on sale in the UK. In 1 child appealing product, they found 1 asbestos fibre and in two of the low-cost samples, they found five and three asbestos fibres.

So are there any health implication if we are exposed to trace amounts of asbestos? The World Health Organisation recognises no safe level of exposure to asbestos. The Institute of Cancer Research’s mesothelioma immunologist Dr. Astero Klampatsa weighs up the risk. She says she would personally choose talc free make- up products.

In 2023, Johnson and Johnson stopped using talc as an ingredient in its baby powder worldwide.

Meanwhile, British cancer patient Hannah Fletcher sues the companies that made her favourite talc based cosmetics. Lawyers fly in to leafy Surrey from America to question her.

Presenter and Producer: Phoebe Keane Sound mix: James Beard Series Editor: Matt Willis

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(17)

Talc Tales: 4. ‘Time for more confusion’

When talc might be listed as a potential carcinogen, the industry assembles a ‘talc task force’. It’s the year 2000 and the talc industry has heard something big is coming its way. The US government a...

5 Aug 202415min

Talc Tales: 3. ‘We may have problems’

Could companies clean up their talc? In the 1970s, talc companies worked out a plan to check their product for asbestos fibres. The problem was, mineralogist Sean Fitzgerald says the testing method th...

5 Aug 202414min

Talc Tales: 2. Never 100% clean

In the 1970s, a scientist discovers asbestos fibres in talcum powder. After Mineralogist Arthur Langer discovered asbestos fibres in the lungs of normal people in New York, he set out to investigate t...

5 Aug 202415min

Talc Tales: 1. Asbestos in my make-up?

After Hannah Fletcher’s cancer diagnosis, she investigates whether her make up contained asbestos. She was just 41 when she was diagnosed with mesothelioma – a rare cancer that’s very hard to treat. T...

5 Aug 202414min

Introducing Talc Tales

Is there asbestos in make-up? If you look through your make-up bag, you might have a blusher, eye shadow or face powder that contains the ingredient talc. But there are questions about its safety. Wom...

28 Jul 20241min

The Tobacco Playbook: 10. Leaving the Tribe

Our story ends at the very top, with a fax to the White House. The campaign to spread doubt about climate change was so successful, it infiltrated the White House. In 2007, a House of Representatives ...

27 Jul 202014min

The Tobacco Playbook: 9. Deep Pockets, Useful Allies

Following the oil money as it’s pumped to contrarian scientists and think tanks. As millions of dollars flow from oil companies to researchers looking into ‘solar variation’ or picking holes in the ...

27 Jul 202013min