Philippines not covered by US recall of baby powder —Johnson & Johnson

Baby powder sold in the Philippines was not part of the tens of thousands of bottles recalled in the US for possible asbestos contamination, according to Johnson & Johnson (J&J).

In the US, J&J voluntarily recalled 33,000 bottles of Johnson’s baby powder after the US FDA found traces of asbestos—a known carcinogen—from a bottle purchased online.

“We would like to assure everyone that this recall is only limited to the specific lot distributed in the US and does not affect markets outside of US, including the Philippines,” J&J said on a Facebook posting.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Philippines is now verifying if J&J baby powder sold in the country was not part of the US recall.

“At this time, we have information that the bottles involved were not sold in the Philippines,” Health Undersecretary and FDA officer-in-charge Eric Domingo told GMA News Online on Wednesday.

“We are now verifying this,” Domingo said.

In a separate statement, the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) urged the FDA to test Johnson’s baby power in the country “to protect consumers from possible asbestos contamination following the recall last week of 33,000 bottles in the US.”

“We are calling upon the FDA authority to proactively take steps to mitigate the undue anxiety felt by consumers caused by this serious discovery of asbestos contamination in a baby product commonly used by so many Filipinos across our growing population. We are urging them to conduct product evaluation test to assure the quality and safety of the product poses to the health of consumers,” Gerard Seno, national executive vice president of ALU-TUCP, said.

“The FDA must guarantee to all of us the safety, purity and efficacy of this product in order to protect the health and welfare of the general public. It is better for FDA to err on the side of caution than to realize too late that many people’s health and safety have already been compromised simply because they didn’t check the product,” Seno said. —VDS, GMA News