Some scientific research has suggested a link between women’s use of talcum powder in the genital area and later development of ovarian cancer.

A 1971 study by British researchers found talc particles embedded in 10 ovarian tumors when they studied a study group of 13. By 1982, researchers had found a link between ovarian cancer and use of talcum powder around the genitals.

A more recent study from 1999 proposed that talc could be the cause of 10 percent of newly diagnosed cases of ovarian cancer per year in the United States. Scientists suspect that talc fibers may be able to migrate through the vagina, uterus and fallopian tubes and become lodged in ovarian tissue.

Talc in Consumer Products

Talc in its natural form is sometimes contaminated with asbestos – specifically tremolite asbestos, a type that has never been widely mined for commercial use.

While any relationship between talc and cancer has not been definitively established, asbestos has been known for decades to cause deadly respiratory disease, including cancers like mesothelioma and lung cancer. Both minerals are created by the same geologic processes, and they are found together in nature – so talc miners may be at risk for asbestos exposure.

Talc used in home cosmetics undergoes inspection for asbestos, and for the most part cosmetics that contain talc today are asbestos-free. Testing conducted by the FDA from 2009 to 2010 found no asbestos in the products tested.

However, the agency could not be certain that all talc-based cosmetics in the U.S. are asbestos-free. Periodically, asbestos has been discovered in some consumer products that contain talc.

Some asbestos has been discovered in crayons and in fingerprint powder included in toy investigation kits, both of which contain talc. An investigation in 2000 traced asbestos found in three different brands of crayons to an upstate New York talc mine, which has since been closed.

Baby Powder Cancer Lawsuits

The first lawsuit over baby powder cancer to go to trial in 2013 met with mixed success: the Minnesota jury found the defendants liable but awarded no damages.

Since then, other claimants have been more fortunate. One plaintiff in California won a $13 million jury award when she sued Colgate-Palmolive over the mesothelioma she developed after using the company’s Cashmere Bouquet talcum powder.

She reported having used the powder from 1961 to 1976, during which most of which time federal law did not yet ban asbestos from talc-based products. Testimony at that trial revealed that until 1985, Colgate-Palmolive had been receiving talc from three different mines contaminated with asbestos.

The jury in the California case found that 95 percent of liability lay with Colgate-Palmolive, with the remaining five percent divided among four other companies. In a statement following the trial, Colgate-Palmolive continued to deny responsibility for the plaintiff’s mesothelioma.

Cosmetics companies aren’t the only ones that can be on the hook. In 2013, a jury in New Jersey awarded $2 million against talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels. The plaintiff in that case had developed mesothelioma that she alleged was caused by asbestos-contaminated talc her father had brought home on his clothes.