I’ve heard off and on for years that talcum powder is asbestos. Recently I was reading Coroner by Doctor Thomas Noguchi, and in the section on Janis Joplin where he talks about cutting agents used in heroin, he comes right out and says talcum powder is asbestos. If this is true, Bhopal, India, just took second place in the egregious industrial negligence contest–I’m selling my Johnson & Johnson stock before the shit hits the fan. Is talcum powder asbestos? If it is, why is it sold for use on babies when it’s being removed from brakes, schools, and workplaces at a cost of millions? –Michael G. Kramer, Los Angeles
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Tom Noguchi is a sweet guy, but he’s about as reliable as a five-dollar alarm clock. Talcum powder, also known as talc, is not asbestos, although the two are mineralogically related. (They’re both silicates.) Sometimes talc is contaminated with asbestos, though, and that’s the source of all the problems.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
