Johnson & Johnson knew that asbestos lurked in its baby powder for decades

The earliest mentions of tainted talc used in J&J baby powder that Reuters found come from 1957 and 1958 reports by a consulting lab. They describe contaminants in talc from Johnson & Johson’s Italian supplier as fibrous and “acicular,” or needle-like, tremolite. That’s one of the six minerals that in their naturally occurring fibrous form are classified as asbestos.