J&J's own expert, working for FDA, found asbestos in Baby Powder

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

BUSINESS NEWS OCTOBER 30, 2019 / 6:04 AM / UPDATED 32 MINUTES AGO

Exclusive: J&J's own expert, working for FDA, found asbestos in Baby Powder

Chad Terhune, Lisa Girion
10 MIN READ

(Reuters) - Ever since Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) disclosed this month that a government test had turned up asbestos in its Baby Powder, the company has attacked the validity of the result.

On Tuesday, for example, J&J announced that other labs it hired ultimately found no asbestos in samples from the bottle tested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or from the same production lot.

In challenging the FDA’s finding, however, the healthcare giant is casting doubt on one of its own experts.

The private Maryland lab that found asbestos in Baby Powder under a contract with the FDA is run by a paid expert witness for J&J.

Andreas Saldivar, laboratory director of AMA Analytical Services Inc, has served as a litigation expert on several occasions for J&J since 2017 in its defense against plaintiffs’ claims that asbestos in talc caused their cancers.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-health-j-j-expert-exclusive/exclusive-jjs-own-expert-working-for-fda-found-asbestos-in-baby-powder-idUSKBN1X912O

[still_one]

1. That expert fucked up. They sent the samples to 15 independent labs who found no trace.

and the lab the supposedly found the trace went out to 5 decimal places. I don’t but it.

[splat]

2. Contaminated by a portable air-conditioner in the room

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/business/johnson-baby-powder-asbestos.html

"The company said it contacted the two labs after the recall to expedite tests of the baby powder in question. Three samples did initially test positive for asbestos, the company said in Tuesday’s statement, but after an investigation by the lab the contamination was found to be coming from a portable air-conditioner in the room."

I can't get all whooped about this. We all used this, often for decades, and we're not all dead yet.

[abqtommy]

3. To analogize your comment, "Many people for many years have flown in commercial

aircraft and we're not all dead yet." Except, of course, for the people who ARE dead.