When China calls you out for “immorality,” you’re doing something very very wrong
Not-so-secret ingredient
Let’s say you run a company that makes shampoo. But not just any shampoo, it’s specifically for newborns and infants.
But now you need to find a way to prevent spoilage. (Shampoo spoils? Who knew?)
Fortunately there’s a chemical called quaternium-15 that takes care of spoilage. But it has just one little problem: It kills bacteria by releasing formaldehyde.
And formaldehyde is carcinogenic.
In a BABY shampoo? NO WAY!
Well…that’s the decision you and I would make at OUR shampoo company.
At some point, a similar discussion must have occurred long ago in the offices of Johnson & Johnson. And apparently that discussion ended something like this: “Sure. Let’s use the quaternium-15.”
And for that, J&J was recently singled out for a public scolding.
But the scolding didn’t come from the FDA or Health & Human Services or the CDC. It came from officials in China.
Yes…China — the country that’s produced milk and baby formula containing melamine, the country that exports honey laced with illegal antibiotics and heavy metals, and the country that makes toothpaste with just a pinch of a chemical used in antifreeze.
THAT’S the country that drew a line in the sand and told J&J, “Enough!”
Phasing out
“Responsible businesses should have ‘moral blood’ flowing in their veins.”
That was one of the rebukes that Xinhua, China’s government news agency, directed at J&J. And it came with this observation: “If you conduct a market survey, it is obviously very difficult to find consumers who could accept products containing carcinogens.”
Agreed, Xinhua — I believe the outcome on the carcinogen question would be unanimous.
Well…among consumers, anyway.
This may sound insane to you and me, but J&J executives claim they’re just operating within accepted limits.
From a J&J statement: “The preservative technologies we use are safe and approved by authorities in the European Union and in the United States, as well as in China and India.”
It’s like a pout from a little child: “Everybody TOLD us it was okay. Yeah — including YOU, China.”
But that statement — in response to an earlier scolding from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics (CSC) — claims the company is taking “significant steps” to reformulate.
J&J: “We have been phasing out formaldehyde releaser preservatives from our baby products.”
Phasing out? Are we supposed to be impressed!? Don’t “phase out” preservatives that create carcinogens, J&J. ELIMINATE those preservatives! Immediately!
Meanwhile, they try to smooth it over with this absurd claim: “We have not seen any evidence of allergy in hundreds of millions of real life uses of these products.”
CSC brought up the allergy issue along with the carcinogen problem. And of course J&J knows absolutely that an allergic reaction is NOT the important issue here. But nowhere in the J&J statement will you find the words “cancer” or “carcinogen.” No way they’re going to go on record connecting those words to their baby shampoo.
The J&J statement finishes with this: “Our goal is to provide parents and their babies with safe, gentle, mild products that they can trust and use with confidence.”
Sorry, J&J — you missed your goal by a Chinese mile.
Sources:
“China Tells Johnson & Johnson To Practice Morality” Ed Silverman, Pharmalot, 11/7/11, pharmalot.com
“Johnson & Johnson Statement” 10/31/11, safecosmetics.org
