Walmart, CVS pull J&J baby powder off shelves amid recall

Bloomberg

Walmart Stores Inc and CVS Health Corp are pulling some bottles of Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder off store shelves after government regulators found tiny amounts of asbestos in one lot of the talc-based product.
Rhode Island-based CVS, the largest US pharmacy chain by locations, said it’s removing all 22-ounce-sized Baby Powder bottles from its stores and off its website. J&J issued a limited recall.
“We took this step as a matter of precaution and to prevent customer confusion,” Mike DeAngelis, a CVS spokesman, said.
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is taking some 22-ounce baby bottles off shelves nationwide “due to the recall issued by the supplier,” said Erin Hulliberger, a company spokeswoman.
Rite Aid, meanwhile, has directed its stores to “pull all product from shelves and store it in a secure location,” according to a company statement. “Additionally, we’ve applied a point of sale system block for this product to prevent it from being sold.”
Walgreen Co said, it, too is removing all 22-ounce bottles from store shelves.
J&J said US Food and Drug Administration tests found one lot of 33,000 bottles of powder had trace levels of asbestos, a carcinogen. The company issued a recall for that lot only. J&J officials have said they are looking into whether cross-contamination of the sample caused a false positive, whether the product was appropriately sealed and maintained in a controlled environment, and whether the product was a counterfeit.
J&J said it was notified by CVS about the decision to pull the 22-ounce bottles off shelves.
“All other Johnson’s Baby Powder products will remain on their shelves,” Ernie Knewitz, a J&J spokesman, said in an email.
Information on how other retailers are responding to the recall wasn’t immediately available.
J&J has been in the cross-hairs recently over claims it knew for 40 years that its iconic baby powder was tainted with asbestos and hid it from consumers.
Asbestos is often found intertwined with talc when mined. The company faces more than 15,000 lawsuits over its handling of its talc-based powders, as well as regulatory and criminal probes.
Some consumers contend they developed cancer from long-term use of the powders and that J&J should be held liable for failing to put a warning on its iconic white bottles. Knewitz said the company’s 1.5-ounce travel-sized bottle of the powder is the brand’s biggest seller.