> She lost her health insurance because she exceeded the policy limits and had to skip her last chemo treatment.<p>What in fucking hell is this? An insurance exists to <i>protect</i> people from going bankrupt due to health issues, not to screw people over when they're already in no position to fight.<p>How on earth is this legal?
I've known for at least a decade that talc was dangerous.<p>I was 100% under the impression it was taken off the market years ago and replaced with corn starch.<p>Reading this article is the first time I realized it was not taken off the market, and I'm very confused.<p>How can I know this is dangerous and the company that makes it not know? I thought it was common knowledge.<p>I'm having a hard time expressing how perplexed and confused I am to hear talc is still on the market.<p>I mean, it says "not to inhale it" - how can you possibly apply it and not inhale some of it? It's impossible. There is no way to use this safely without a gas mask.
I've known about this molecular similarity to asbestos for 15 years, and have pretty much warned every barber or hairdresser that I've ever been to. They've never listened. I moved to a different city but I heard about a year ago the hairdresser at a place I used to frequent has lung cancer. Was it the cause? Who knows, but it sure is sad to hear. Regular people are just horrible about assessing / understanding risk. Baby Power is like the climate change of the local hairdressing world. That might be a slight overstatement, but gosh they sure use a ton of it here.
Quote:<p>> “People were using something they thought was perfectly safe,” he says. “And it isn’t. At least give people the choice. J&J didn’t give people a choice.” Among the most painful revelations, he says, was that in the 1990s, even as the company acknowledged concerns in the health community, it considered increasing its marketing efforts to black and Hispanic women, who were already buying the product in high numbers.<p>Cynical question: Was increasing marketing efforts to black and Hispanic women out of racism or a cold risk calculation in the hope that these women couldn't afford to defend themselves as good as other groups? Will J&J be persecuted for this discrimination?<p>Disclaimer: I am not from US, but by reading HN I am often surprised how things work in US.
It does not surprise me that introduction of small particulates to any orifice on a daily basis would increase cancer risk. Household dust increases cancer risk.<p>The cover up orchestrated by Johnson&Johnson here, however, is the deplorable story.
Although you'd have to be a total idiot to give much attention to such a idiotic, emotive article there does seem to be evidence inhaling mico particles is very very bad.<p>Be it cigarette smoke or a fireplace or smog or perhaps talcum power use = mico particle inhalation.<p>If there's a real story here this is where it might be, or give me a better written article that is about scientists not juries.