This is a remarkable story. Johnson & Johnson knew for decades asbestos was in its baby powder. They not only kept this a secret but actively paid for bogus science to stave off regulations that might have protected people. reut.rs/2A1targ
This is such an important question that we shouldn't gloss over. Why ARE companies that knowingly cause harm able to stay in business for years, or decades after? Let's dive in...
Johnson & Johnson is in fact following a carefully crafted playbook for what to do when science shows your product is causing harm. It’s a playbook that’s been used by many many companies from Coca-Cola to Merck to the NFL. ucsusa.org/playbook
Companies like J&J work hard to ensure inconvenient science, like say, lab tests that find asbestos in your baby product, never see the light of day. They keep such knowledge out of public and regulators’ view and suppress it.
Once independent scientists discover a product’s harm, companies attach them, intimidate them, and question their credibility. J&J included a few concerned scientists on a list of “antagonistic personalities”
Companies also hire their own scientists to come to opposite conclusions. J&J’s experts continue to assert there is no asbestos in the product, even now when the company’s own internal documents and independent studies confirm otherwise.
The goal is here to create manufacture doubt. You might have heard concerns before that baby powder was harmful but weren’t sure it was true. This isn’t a coincidence. It is a company strategy.
If companies fail to convince the public their product is safe using these tactics, they cut straight to the source and influence policymakers directly. J&J pressured the FDA to adopt testing methods it knew would miss small amounts of asbestos.
But don’t our laws protect us against bad-acting companies like this? They are supposed to and largely do. The mission of the FDA is to protect us from harms in products like baby powder, cosmetics, food, and drugs. But companies rig the system in their favor.
Companies inappropriately influence what should be science-based decisions at agencies. They plant ex-employees inside as regulators. They pay off members of Congress. They fail to report information. J&J never told the FDA it found asbestos in its product.
This is why we must ensure government works. Are good FDA scientists testing beauty product safety? Does the USDA have enough food inspectors? Does OSHA have enough resources to protect workers? Every day, government staff are working to keep us save from bad-acting companies.
It doesn’t always seem urgent or sexy to make sure that science advisory committees are operating (ucsusa.org/scienceadvice) or that lower level political appointees don’t have conflicts of interest, but this is why it matters.
We need government agencies that use independent science to act in the public interest and stand up to companies like J&J. Without that, the public suffers.
Without government action to protect us from things like asbestos in baby powder, our only hope to stop a bad-acting company is the courts. And indeed, it is often litigation that takes down companies that knowingly cause harm, Big Tobacco being the prime example.
But the courts are an imperfect tool. It can be years before lawsuits are successful and companies start to pay a price for the harm they’ve caused. Many plaintiffs (and would-be plaintiffs) with ovarian cancer potentially linked to use of J&J’s baby powder have long deceased.
This why we are only now seeing suits on the fossil fuel industry's role in deceiving the public and investors on the threat of climate change, though we've known for years the industry knowingly spread disinformation on climate risks. (e.g. here: ucsusa.org/global-warming…)
We shouldn’t rely on the courts to judge the weight of the science on the safety of companies’ products. We should have a system that better ensures companies are held to high standards of scientific integrity ad held accountability when they don’t meet them.
Sure, not every company is doing as breathtakingly terrible things as knowingly selling asbestos-tainted baby products and specifically marketing it to African Americans, but companies are acting with their financial interests in mind, not the public interest.
We need to fund the government. We need an army of smart government scientists protecting us. We need stronger laws to protect people from bad-acting companies. There are things that can and should be done. You can read about some of them here. Fin. ucsusa.org/center-science…
