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Retailers Remove Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder from Shelves

Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid have all removed Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder from their shelves after last Friday’s safety recall was issued when news broke that J&J’s talc baby powder was contaminated with asbestos.

At issue is 33,300 22-oz. bottles of J&J’s iconic baby powder. Retailers have removed the product from shelves and blocked it from their computer systems so that it cannot mistakenly fall into the hands of consumers.

The FDA began testing J&J talc baby powder for asbestos earlier this year after Reuters investigative reporting showed J&J internal corporate documents and communications proved that J&J knew that sometimes testing of their talc came back positive for the presence of asbestos and concealed the information.

J&J has spent the last year running a tireless campaign to prove to the world that their product is safe, “Since tests for asbestos in talc were first developed, J&J’s Baby Powder has never contained asbestos.” J&J previously said in a statement, “If we had any reasons to believe our talc was unsafe, it would be off of shelves.”

J&J is denying the validity of the test, and claims there was cross contamination of the samples, or that the product tested was counterfeit.

The FDA said it stands by the results of their testing, "FDA handling of the sample and testing followed standard operating procedures for laboratory analysis and FDA sees no indication of cross-contamination," FDA spokeswoman Lyndsay Meyer wrote in an email to CNN. “There is no indication that the product is counterfeit and no record pointing to counterfeit Johnson's baby powder in the US market."

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