Two chemicals considered harmful to babies remain in Johnson & Johnson’s baby shampoo sold in the US and some other countries, even though the company already makes versions without them, according to a coalition of health and environmental groups.
Now the coalition is urging consumers to boycott Johnson & Johnson baby products until the company agrees to remove the chemicals from its baby products sold around the world, including in China and Canada.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has unsuccessfully been urging the world’s largest healthcare company for two-and-a-half years to remove the trace amounts of potentially cancer-causing chemicals — dioxane and a substance called quaternium-15 that releases formaldehyde — from Johnson’s Baby Shampoo, one of its signature products.
Johnson & Johnson has said it is reducing or gradually phasing out the chemicals.
“Johnson & Johnson clearly can make safer baby shampoo in all the markets around the world, but it’s not doing it,” said Lisa Archer, director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics.
The campaign’s new report, Baby’s Tub is Still Toxic, was released yesterday and the group launched the boycott via its Web site, www.safecosmetics.org.
The updated report was based on an examination of ingredients of Johnson & Johnson baby products in 13 countries.
On Monday, the campaign sent Johnson & Johnson a letter, signed by about 25 environmental, medical and other groups representing about 3.5 million. It urges the company to publicly commit by Nov. 15 to removing the chemicals from all personal care products worldwide.
Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that formaldehyde-releasing preservatives are safe and approved by regulators in the US, but that it is phasing them out of its products.
According to the report, one of the suspect chemicals, quaternium-15, is a preservative that kills bacteria by releasing formaldehyde. Formaldehyde, used as a disinfectant and embalming fluid, was declared a known human carcinogen in June by the US National Toxicology Program.
Quaternium-15 is still an ingredient on Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Shampoo sold in the US, Canada, China, Indonesia and Australia, but the campaign’s research this summer found it’s not in the same product sold in at least eight other countries, from the UK to Japan.
The other chemical, 1,4-dioxane, is considered a likely carcinogen.
In Taiwan, hypermarket chain Far Eastern Geant Co (愛買量販) yesterday checked with Johnson & Johnson Taiwan after receiving an inquiry from the Taipei Times, saying Johnson & Johnson Taiwan had no comment because it is not a new development.
Far Eastern Geant spokeswoman Susan Yang (楊冬寧) said the hypermarket was not aware of such an issue and that it had not received any notice from Johnson & Johnson Taiwan to recall or pull products from its shelves.
Additional reporting by Jason Tan
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