Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder may get banned globally, here’s why

International healthcare brand Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is witnessing an effort in the UK to force the company to stop the sale of its talc-based baby powder across global. The effort to bring a share holder vote to shelf the product comes amidst concerns of the baby powder’s alleged link to cancer, The Guardian reported.

The product was withdrawn by J&J from the US and Canada markets in 2020. The company had faced a slump in sales in the countries after regulators in the US found a sample of the product to have traces of carcinogenic chrysotile fibres, which is a kind of asbestos.

J&J reportedly faces over 4,000 lawsuits. Many of these are from women who alleged to had used the product and had later been detected with ovarian cancer.

The proposals for the shareholder vote to force stop global sales of the J&J talc-based baby powder was reportedly made by a Tulipshare, an investment platform in London. Tulipshare enables users to pool their shares together, thereby meeting the threshold needed get shareholder votes on resolutions. Ahead of J&J’s annual meeting in April, the proposal was submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC) for verifying eligibility, the news outlet reported.