Lancet Retracts 49-Year-Old Baby Powder Paper Over J&J Breach

The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, retracted a nearly five-decade-old paper extolling the safety of talc, the main ingredient in Johnson & Johnson’s iconic baby powder that fueled tens of thousands of lawsuits against the company after it was linked to cancer.

The journal editors said they recently learned the unsigned article was written by Francis J C Roe, a J&J consultant and prominent cancer researcher. Roe, who is dead, ran the manuscript by the company for changes before publication in 1977 — all unbeknownst to the journal’s staff at the time. The original ...