Johnson & Johnson has announced it will stop selling talc-based baby powder in Australia in 2023, as it transitions its popular, but controversial, global product to a cornstarch base.
Key points:
The company said the change was part of a “worldwide portfolio assessment” of its products
The company faces about 38,000 lawsuits from people who claim the talc caused cancer
Experts say the evidence available to prove that link is “far from established”
In a statement to the ABC, a company spokesperson said while its talc-based range would be discontinued globally, cornstarch-based powder was already being sold in Australia.
“As part of a worldwide portfolio assessment, we have made the commercial decision to transition to an all corn starch-based baby powder portfolio,” it said.
The move comes two years after it ended US sales due to thousands of consumer safety lawsuits.
Johnson & Johnson said the lawsuit had failed in the wake of “misinformation” about the product’s safety.
The company faces about 38,000 lawsuits from consumers and their survivors who claim the talc-based products caused cancer, due to contamination with asbestos which is a known carcinogen.
Johnson & Johnson has always denied the allegations and said decades of scientific testing and regulatory approvals have shown its talc to be safe and asbestos-free.
Experts like Professor Bernard Stewart from the Cancer Council have said the current evidence that talc-based powders caused cancer was “very slight” and “far from established.”
A family-friendly brand since 1894
Sold since 1894, Johnson’s Baby Powder became a symbol of the company’s family-friendly image.
But talcum powder has fallen out of favor with parents who are now choosing products that contain other natural ingredients to use on their babies’ skin.
In October, Johnson & Johnson spun off subsidiary LTL Management, assigned its talc claims to it and immediately placed it into bankruptcy, pausing the pending lawsuits.
Before the bankruptcy filing, the company faced costs of $US3.5 billion ($4.9 billion) in verdicts and settlements.
In one case, court records show 22 women were awarded more than $US2 billion.
A proposal by shareholders to end global sales of the talc baby powder failed in April.
An investigation by Reuters in 2018 found Johnson & Johnson knew for decades that small amounts of the carcinogen, asbestos, sometimes presented in its talc products.
Johnson & Johnson has always said its talc products are safe and do not cause cancer.
The 74-year-old — who is recovering from lung cancer — was scrupulous in trying to avoid it, wearing masks and social distancing.
Then, while she was still in the middle of immunotherapy treatment, it happened.
“I got the positive result, did the online questionnaire [and] then my [healthcare provider] rang me,” she said.
“They sent me an oximeter, which was delivered to my doorstep.”
But it was the next element that, according to Ms Browning, made an “enormous difference”.
Jan Browning says COVID-19 antiviral medication helped with her recovery, allowing her to play sport again. (ABC News: Patrick Stone)
Later on the same day, she said, a COVID-19 doctor from her local health service called her and suggested she be put on antiviral treatment because of her past medical history.
The medication was delivered to her door step that night. After a day of treatment, Ms Browning said, she was “already starting to feel better.”
“It was such a smooth process and, I think, for me, I would have been in strife without them,” she said.
“It kept me out of the hospital. I’m playing sports again now and I feel great.”
For Canberra mother Liz Pickworth, the process was the polar opposite.
Liz Pickworth says she felt abandoned when sick with COVID-19.(ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
The 35-year-old has advanced cancer of the thymus gland, a rare cancer affecting fewer than one in 1.5 million people.
When she was diagnosed with COVID-19 earlier thisyear— when she was still receiving cancer treatment — her specialists advised her to get antivirals as soon as possible.
However, despite numerous phone calls to her medical specialists and the local COVID-19 hotline, she wasn’t able to access the medications, which would have sped up her recovery.
“I felt like I was begging for my own welfare to survive COVID,” she told the ABC.
“I felt alone, I didn’t know where to look for help. I just felt like I was going to be sick all the time.”
Despite having stage 4 cancer, Liz Pickworth couldn’t access COVID antivirals. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore )
antiviral access
Two COVID-19 oral antiviral treatments, Lagevrio and Paxlovid, have been approved for use in Australia.
The treatments help stop a virus infecting healthy cells or multiplying in the body, with more than 182,000 prescriptions dispensed across the country, according to the Health Department.
Health specialists say they have become a critical element of the country’s COVID-19 response, reducing pressure on the nation’s hospital systems.
However, their use is restricted. Under guidelines revised last month, the only people who can access them are:
Australians over the age of 70 who test positive to COVID-19
Australians aged over 50 — and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people aged over 30 — with two or more risk factors for severe disease
Anyone over 18 who is severely immunocompromised or has severe physical or intellectual disabilities can also be assessed for access.
Ms Pickworth was diagnosed in January when the antivirals had only just been approved for use in Australia.
According to the Australian Medical Association (AMA), the process has improved significantly over the past few months, with thousands gaining access to the drugs.
Yet, the two cancer patients’ contrasting stories highlight what some in the health sector say is a convoluted process putting some people at unnecessary risk.
Research shows antivirals are most effective when taken in the first few days after diagnosis. However, they need to be prescribed by a doctor, some Australians are struggling to access them within that short time frame.
The ABC spoke to a number of eligible Australians this week who said they had trouble accessing the drugs, either because they could not speak to a GP, lived in a regional area or simply because of basic administrative blunders.
Because of this, Pharmacy Guild president Trent Twomey believes patients who are eligible should be able to get them over the counter at pharmacies, a step that has been introduced in New Zealand and in parts of the US.
“Our patients are telling us they are frustrated that, by the time they can get an appointment with their doctor, [up to] four days have already lapsed,” Mr Twomey said.
“We would like people who are eligible to not have to go to their doctor to get an antiviral, but to present to their pharmacy and the antiviral would be provided.”
The Pharmacy Guild has put its proposal to Health Minister Mark Butler.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health did not address the proposal specifically.
She said that, after its COVID-19 care arrangements, states and territories were responsible for distribution of supply within their jurisdictions.
‘Word getting out’ about antivirals
Despite the reports of delays, doctors’ groups say the current system is working well, ensuring patients who need antiviral treatments are getting them.
AMA national vice-president Danielle McMullen said there were some challenges in getting the drugs out in the early days.
However, she said, most of those had been addressed.
AMA vice president Dr Danielle McMullen says early challenges in delivering antivirals had largely been overcome.(ABC News: Billy Cooper)
“We’ve seen a really positive increase in the number of prescriptions being dispensed over the past couple of weeks in particular,” Dr McMullen said.
Dr McMullen said more messaging to the public was required but she believed “the word is getting out there” that these important medications were available.
As of July 10, when the federal government expanded access to treatments, about 73,000 scripts had been filled. As of Tuesday, more than 182,000 scripts had been filled.
Virologists such as The Doherty Institute’s Tony Cunningham have also suggested that antivirals should be used more widely in the population to prevent ongoing symptoms.
He told the ABC that future research into who was more at risk of contracting long COVID should be considered when deliberating future changes to antiviral eligibility.
A spokeswoman for the federal Health Department said the government relied on the advice of the independent Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee when deciding its criteria for who was eligible.
It said it had “sufficient supplies” of both medicines in Australia.
Back in Canberra, Ms Pickworth said she was not angry at the health authorities who, she said, had been “very supportive” of her during cancer treatment.
“It was confusing,” she said. “And being so unwell, the last thing you want to have to do is [have] to advocate for your own wellbeing.”
A spokeswoman for ACT Health said at the time of Ms Pickworth’s positive case, the only antivirals available were intravenous medications.
The spokeswoman said eligibility criteria for antivirals and the mechanisms to access these treatments had “evolved significantly” throughout 2022.
The family of Australian icon Olivia Newton-John is still in talks with the Victorian government about how the state will honor the late singer.
Key points:
Newton-John died on Monday at her ranch in southern California
Messages posted to her official social media accounts said the 73-year-old “passed away peacefully” surrounded by friends and family
Her niece flagged on Tuesday that the family would accept a state funeral
Newton-John, best known for her role as Sandy in the 1978 classic Grease, died on Monday, local time, at her ranch in southern California.
She had been diagnosed with cancer.
When asked during a press conference on Tuesday whether he would consider offering the family a state funeral, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he wanted to speak with them, citing Newton-John’s “amazing” contributions.
“I was honored to meet Olivia Newton-John on many different occasions, particularly in connection with the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre,” Mr Andrews said.
“An absolutely supreme talent, a person of grace, a person of such energy and vitality.
“She took her cancer journey and used that to save lives and change lives.”
On Wednesday a spokesperson for the Premier said they were still talking to the family and no formal offer of a service had been made yet.
Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta in an iconic scene from Grease.(Paramount Pictures)
Newton-John’s daughter Totti Goldsmith told Nine’s A Current Affair program on Tuesday the family would accept an offer of a state funeral.
“I think Australia needs it,” Goldsmith said.
Landmarks turn pink for Newton-John
Buildings at Melbourne’s arts center were bathed in a pink glow in memory of Olivia Newton-John.(ABC News: Simon Tucci)
Born in the UK, Newton-John moved to the Victorian capital as a child.
The performer was a tireless campaigner for breast cancer research during her lifetime, having been diagnosed with the disease herself.
The Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness and Research Center continues to operate at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne’s east.
Last night, landmarks including Flinders Street Station and the Melbourne Cricket Ground turned pink in honor of Newton-John’s legacy.
The star moved to Melbourne as a child.(ABC News: Joseph Dunstan)
Visit ABC iview for our Remembering Olivia Newton-John collection.
When 38-year-old Melbourne woman Sarah looks at her one-year-old baby, Etta, she sees a precious gift that she and her husband might never have been granted.
“Sometimes I look at her and I think it’s just sort of incredible that it actually happened,” Sarah told ABC’s 7.30.
In 2009, Sarah was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and was told she had to start treatment straight away.
From that moment, her focus was solely on her own survival and not on bigger questions about how treatments such as chemotherapy might affect her body and her future chances of falling pregnant.
“At the time, the main things I was worried about were, ‘Am I going to die?’ And things like, ‘Is my hair going to fall out?'” she said.
“Secondary issues — [such as] ‘What’s the long-term impacts on my fertility and my other health?’—were sort of really in the back of my mind.”
Luckily, her mother thought to ask those questions before Sarah started chemotherapy and she was put in touch with Dr Kate Stern, who runs an innovative fertility program at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne that, a decade later, helped change the course of Sarah’s life .
“Without my mum making that phone call, and all these pieces falling together, [Etta] just might not have ever existed,” Sarah said.
Science behind innovative procedure
Sarah says it’s “incredible” she was able to have baby Etta.(ABC News: Nadia Daly)
When ABC’s 7.30 met Sarah, baby Etta was waddling around happily on the floor. She had taken her first steps that morning and turned one the day before.
Those are special milestones for any family, but even more so for Sarah and her husband, Gabriel, who had been through a long and difficult journey over a period of 10 years to get there.
As Sarah underwent treatment for cancer immediately after her diagnosis, there was no time for conventional procedures such as egg freezing. So she and Dr Stern decided to use another innovative method to give Sarah the chance to fall pregnant when she concluded her cancer treatment.
It’s known as ovarian tissue freezing, and Dr Stern was one of the doctors who helped pioneer the procedure at the Royal Women’s Hospital.
Dr Kate Stern describes the process as “absolutely miraculous”.(ABC News: Nadia Daly)
“Fertility preservation with ovarian tissue is innovative and it’s exciting but, because of the technical difficulties, it’s not widely available around the world,” Dr Stern said.
The procedure involves removing part of a woman’s ovary tissue via keyhole surgery, slicing it thinly and then freezing it in special containers in a lab.
When the woman completes her cancer treatment, the tissue can be defrosted and inserted back into her abdomen if she decides she wants to try to start a family.
“Over four or five months, that tissue gets a life of its own, it gets new blood vessels, the follicles and eggs start to develop. And it makes hormones — it is absolutely miraculous, we think,” Dr Stern said.
‘For these patients, it’s this versus nothing’
Dr Kate Stern says the treatment does not guarantee a patient will fall pregnant.(ABC News: Nadia Daly)
Dr Stern helped set up the program at the hospital and played a key role in developing the procedure 26 years ago.
While the treatment is no longer considered experimental, it is highly specialized and cannot be performed at all hospitals, and Dr Stern cautions that it does not guarantee a patient can fall pregnant.
“Getting good eggs is still hard work,” she said.
“But the treatment is quite successful. It depends what your benchmark is but, for these patients, it’s this versus nothing.”
Dr Stern said that, around the world, about 170 women have fallen pregnant after using their frozen ovarian tissue.
In Sarah’s case, her cancer treatment stretched out from a few months to a decade of on-and-off treatment that took a heavy toll on her body.
“Sarah’s extensive treatment for her cancer damaged her ovaries so that she was in a state of what we call premature menopause — her ovaries did not have any good eggs in them,” she said.
“So Sarah needed to have this ovarian tissue grafted to be able to have any opportunity [of having] to baby.”
When Sarah was two years in remission, she was advised it was safe to reinsert the ovarian tissue and to try to fall pregnant.
A few years later, in July 2021, Etta was born.
‘We had no idea about these options’
“I knew I dad to do it”: Zahli Habel underwent ovarian tissue freezing after being diagnosed with cancer.(ABC News: Carl Saville)
Over in the remote town of Streaky Bay in South Australia, 11-year-old Zahli Habel is at a very different stage in her life.
She finished her chemotherapy a year ago but, before she began, she had part of an ovary removed and flown to the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne to be frozen and preserved if she decides to have children in the future.
“Zahli was diagnosed with a cancer that required intensive chemotherapy. This chemotherapy has a high chance of damaging future ovarian function,” Dr Stern explained.
The diagnosis was shocking enough for Zahli and her family, and fertility was not something they had considered.
“I guess when we got the diagnosis, we were dealing with that — that was the biggest issue,” Zahli’s mum, Steph, said.
Steph Habel was grateful the issue of fertility was raised when daughter Zahli was diagnosed with cancer.(ABC News: Carl Saville)
“And then, suddenly for them to come out and talk about fertility… we had no idea about these options.
“And it was amazing that it was offered to us and that we could take it up.”
Zahli decided that it was a good option for her to give her choices in her future.
“I knew I had to do it,” she said.
“Because, if I wanted to have kids in the future and chemo killed off all my eggs, I knew that it was really my only thing to rely on.”
Jane Harriss has been fighting for a permanent surgical service for gynecological cancers in Canberra for almost two decades — with good reason.
“My mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer some years ago and she died with it, after having survived for seven years,” Ms Harriss said.
“She was one of those people, who had to go to Sydney for her surgery.”
The metastasising cancer saw Ms Hariss’s mum, Erica, make three trips to Sydney for separate surgeries, with follow-up appointments in Canberra, through a fortnightly clinic provided as a fly-in-fly-out service by Sydney’s Royal Hospital for Women.
Work is now under way to remove that travel requirement and deliver the capital’s first permanent gyneacological surgery service.
“Canberra Health Services has just been working through what the model of care will look like, what supports will be required to ensure that that can occur,” ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said.
The FIFO service has faced an uncertain future for months, since the surgeon announced he would be retiring at the end of the year and Canberra-based doctor, Leon Foster, put his hand up to run a permanent clinic if funding was found.
At a media conference on June 17, Ms Stephen-Smith suggested funding was not the issue.
“It’s more a question of assessing when the number of people that are having to travel interstate is actually sufficient that we can bring that service into the ACT,” she said at the time.
But on Monday, she confirmed Canberra Health Services had advertised for a full-time specialist surgeon and a “merit-based recruitment process” was required.
‘They had to travel when they were very ill’
Most cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed in the late stages of the disease.(Rare Ovarian Cancer Incorporated)
Ms Harriss said the progress was “better late than never” and every woman she’ had met through her ovarian cancer support group had been frustrated over the absence of a permanent Canberra clinic.
“They had to travel when they were, effectively, very ill — because it’s diagnosed late-stage,” she said.
“And then they’d have to return home, within about 10 days of having massive abdominal surgery. And they would have to do this a number of times, potentially.”
Ms Harriss said she was pleased the government had chosen “to go down this path”.
“It’s wonderful in terms of women who are currently dealing with the disease and for those who potentially might be diagnosed in the future,” she said.
“It will make life … not easier, but a little bit less stressful.”
John Seccombe had regularly checked his skin and even had small cancers on his face removed, but nothing prepared him for the moment when the right side of his face went numb.
Key points:
Farmers older than 65 have a high risk of developing melanomas
8,032 people were diagnosed with melanomas in 2021
The number is expected to grow to more than 11,000 by 2030
He was a fair-skinned boy who grew up on a farm.
Later in life, he managed a cattle station and a feedlot at Gurly Station, south of Moree in north west New South Wales, before becoming the chair of Casino Food Co-op, the largest meat co-op in the country.
He was aware of the danger of skin cancers, regularly went to the dermatologist, and had a squamous cell carcinoma removed in his 30s.
But the disease returned, and this time, it was a “rampant” cancer that was heading into his brain stem, crushing a facial nerve.
According to his doctors, it was a death sentence.
“I had to under go radiation for two years, at the end of that it was still growing and they gave me 12 months to live and said ‘go home and hug your children’,” Mr Seccombe said.
Skin cancer death rates for farmers over 65 are double that of other Australians.(Supplied: John Seccombe)
That was 22 years ago.
Mr Seccombe was saved by radical experimental surgery that involved three operations on his face.
“I had to have three lots of craniotomies, where they enter your face through the skull base,” he said.
“They removed as much damaged tissue as they could but it left my right eye left in a precarious position so I had to have another one, removed my eye, and I basically lost the right side of my face.”
Check your skin
Melanomas can be extremely serious, but there are ways of identifying them.(Supplied: Melanoma Patients Association)
Mr Seccombe is now living on a farm on the north coast of New South Wales and is the chairman of Melanoma Patients Australia, a charitable organization that advocates and supports people diagnosed with melanoma.
He is urging men in regional and rural areas to check their own skin.
That is because the statistics in those parts of Australia, often a long way from the beach, are shocking.
The death rates in farmers over 65 from skin cancer are more than double the rate of other Australians, while the total disease burden rate in remote Australia is 1.4 times as high as in major cities.
And it is expected to get worse.
About 8,000 Australians in regional areas were diagnosed with melanoma last year, and that is forecast to rise to over 11,000 annually by 2030.
That is because the population is ageing, and men are twice as likely as women to die of melanoma due to complacency about sun safety, according to the Cancer Council.
Among the lovelier lyrics in Don McLean’s song about Vincent van Gogh are those that refer to “faces lined in pain” being “soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand.”
Key points:
The Spirit of SA collection showcases people, places and objects with strong ties to SA
The works will be auctioned off to raise $100,000 to support children with cancer
At the forefront is artist Mark Lobert, who volunteered his time to produce 42 works in about 30 weeks
Something of that tender spirit is reflected at Mark Lobert’s Port Adelaide studio, where, for the past few months, an impressive act of artistic altruism has been taking shape.
“Hopefully we’ve done SA proud because we’re very proud of this collection,” Lobert said when describing the project.
Painting is a paintaking business, but these portraits and landscapes are about alleviating pain — specifically, the pain of very sick children.
Collectively, the 42 canvases will comprise the Spirit of SA exhibition, and they depict prominent South Australian faces, places and icons.
The Granite Island horse-drawn tram is popular with tourists at Victor Harbor.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
From Monday, they will be on display at Adelaide’s Westpac House, and will be auctioned online to raise at least $100,000 for the Childhood Cancer Association (CCA), to support children battling the illness.
Subjects include rock legend Jimmy Barnes, actress Theresa Palmer, the Hills Hoist, Kangaroo Island’s Remarkable Rocks, chef Maggie Beer, and pop singer Guy Sebastian.
There are also the ABC’s Collinswood building, AFLW star Chelsea Randall and former prime minister Julia Gillard.
Born in the UK, former Prime Minister Julia Gillard moved to Adelaide at a young age.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
“As a female in politics, and in general, she’s an amazing person,” Lobert said of Gillard.
“The painting that has been done by Barnesy is linked in with the Largs Pier Hotel.
Australian rock legend Jimmy Barnes with the Largs Pier Hotel.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
“That image would have to be one of my favourites.”
The project has evolved collaboratively — fellow artist Phil Hodgson has worked closely with Lobert, and it is testament to their commitment to the cause that both have volunteered their time.
Each has brought different and complementary skills.
Hodgson’s talents include the ability to capture the lineaments of a human face, while Lobert has focused on non-human subjects, as well as color schemes and other touches.
42 paintings in 30 weeks
In person, Lobert can look a little like a canvas himself—his arms are impressively inked, and his paint-stained shirt resembles a palette for mixing colors.
His studio is every bit the artist’s den.
Lobert’s shirt, like the floor of his studio, is suitably stained with paint.(ABC Radio Adelaide: Daniel Keane)
It is brimming with brushes, paint pots, blank canvases, and works in progress, and its floor is so densely covered with splashes of pigment that it resembles an example of Jackson Pollock’s abstract expressionism.
But the paintings themselves suggest other suitably eclectic influences.
A carton of Farmers Union Iced Coffee, a packet of FruChocs and a selection of frog cakes evoke Andy Warhol’s soup cans, while the blues and yellows of an image of Adelaide’s skyline bring to mind van Gogh’s Starry Night.
An Andy Warhol-esque painting of a packet of FruChocs.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
“I kind of love colour, I’m always trying to chase color — I need to have color all around me,” Lobert said.
Despite that passion, he admits the production of 42 sizeable works in about 30 weeks has been a challenge.
Kangaroo Island’s Remarkable Rocks were among Hodgson and Lobert’s subjects.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
But when he admitted, “I won’t lie — it’s been very stressful”, he spoke with the smile of someone who knows the finish line is in sight.
“They have taken a lot of time,” he said.
“Originally, we were going to start off with about 14 — then it went to 20, and 25 went to 30, then it bloomed out to 38 and shot out to 42.”
The Hills Hoist clothes line was produced in South Australia.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
‘The fight of his life’
The driving force behind the project has been media identity and CCA ambassador Mark Soderstrom.
By auctioning the paintings, Soderstrom hopes to raise $100,000.(ABC Radio Adelaide: Daniel Keane)
“I thought, we’ve got to be grateful for where we live, what can we do to raise $70,000 to $100,000?” he said.
“What if we try and showcase the best part of South Australia, and then auction them off for Childhood Cancer?
“They need something like $1.3 million a year to function and provide their services, so if we could put a dent in that, it’d be bloody brilliant.”
Chosen subjects also included Port Lincoln’s tuna industry.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
Soderstrom admits he is not “arty” himself — but he is impressed by the power of art not only to raise funds but to provide respite.
Through CCA, he struck up a friendship with Lobert.
Their work has put them in contact with some harrowing stories.
Three-time AFLW premiership player and two-time premiership co-captain Chelsea Randall.(Supplied: Phil Hodgson and Mark Lobert)
Soderstrom recalled the case of Jaxon, “an unbelievably brave little boy” who was undergoing palliative care at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
“He was in the fight of his life, and his parents called him Iron Man because he was so strong,” Soderstrom said.
Soderstrom asked Lobert to paint a picture of the superhero for Jaxon, to go over his hospital bed.
“Every time he woke up, with the time he had left, all he could see was Iron Man.”
Easing the burden on children like Jaxon is at the heart of the Spirit of SA.
“Our father passed away with cancer,” Lobert said.
“So whenever I hear of any [fundraiser] that’s to do with cancer, it’s always going to be a ‘yes’.
“I love to be able to give.”
Assistant Leandra McKay and artist Mark Lobert at Lobert’s studio, where he has been working on a painting of CCA mascot Elliot.(ABC Radio Adelaide: Daniel Keane)
