North Carolina Personal Injury Blog

We know that asbestos exposure can lead to all manner of health complications, including cancers like mesothelioma, ovarian cancer and lung cancer. These can be fatal. People are careful to limit their exposure to try to stay safe and healthy for years to come.

However, none of this happens overnight. One of the main problems that makes this so complicated is that there are long timelines and delayed results. People may not even realize that they are getting exposed or just how harmful it is at the moment that it is happening.

Inadequate government oversight seems to play a significant role in issues related to many workplace safety issues, including asbestos contamination. For years, the government did not take an official stance on asbestos. Eventually, medical science made it clear that prolonged exposure to asbestos could eventually cause serious medical issues, such as the deadly cancer mesothelioma.

That knowledge prompted the government to limit how much exposure a company could permit in employees and resulted in guidelines intended to minimize the health impact of asbestos in the environment and in products. It also gave rise to public awareness about the potential dangers of asbestos in their environment. Unfortunately, very little is known about environmental asbestos exposure.

Johnson & Johnson, the monolithic health and beauty company, has long denied the potential for asbestos contamination in their talcum powder products. Marketed as baby powder, this popular Johnson & Johnson product was sold for years to mothers, as well as to adults who wanted to freshen their genitals and avoid dampness in their underwear.

Talc is a naturally occurring mineral, and its deposits in the earth are often quite close to deposits of asbestos. Companies such as Johnson & Johnson should have strict purity and testing standards to prevent potential contamination that could endanger or even kill consumers. Sadly, many companies cut corners in areas that directly impact consumer safety and try to avoid consequences.

When new products get developed by big companies and researchers, the government must carefully balance the potential benefits of those products with the risks that they pose for consumers. Unfortunately, in some situations, companies have more control over the approval process for new products than they potentially should.

After all, a company that has invested tens of thousands or even millions of dollars in the process of developing a new product likely doesn't relish the idea of losing all that money because the product cannot go to market. Those same companies may finance research into the safety of the products they hope to release.