Evidence Does Not Support Exposure to Cosmetic Talc as Cause of Malignant Mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Evidence Does Not Support Exposure to Cosmetic Talc as Cause of Malignant Mesothelioma, by S.J. Geyer (Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2020).

The study

• Author: S.J. Geyer
• Journal: Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
• Published: 2020;62(2):e83-e84
• Type of article: Letter, Comment
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor, not a research study, and it reports no new data. The author responded to a published case series by Moline and co-authors describing 33 people who developed mesothelioma after reported use of cosmetic talcum powder. The author argued that no standard method for tissue fiber burden analysis has been adopted by any professional society, although the case series called its method standard. The author noted that the control table counted fibers 1 micrometer or less in length, while the methods required structures at least five micrometers long. The author also noted that fiber burden results were given for only 6 of the 33 cases. The author argued that, without a comparison group, the data support an association but not causation. The author also said the case series did not address reviews of cosmetic talc millers and miners that found no pleural mesotheliomas, or studies of talc pleurodesis patients that found none. The author concluded that the claim that talcum powders can cause mesothelioma should be viewed with skepticism.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: letter to the editor commenting on a published case series; no original data
• Who was studied: No population was studied. The letter discusses a case series by Moline and co-authors of 33 individuals with mesothelioma, 6 of whom had tissue fiber burden analysis reported.
• Exposure: Reported use of cosmetic talcum powder, which the case series described as contaminated with asbestos
• Main results:
  • The author argued that no standard method for tissue fiber burden analysis has been adopted by any professional society, even though the case series described its analysis as done by standard methodology.
  • The author said the accuracy of Gordon's identification of asbestos in talcum powder and tissue has been questioned. The author also said the fiber analyses do not prove the asbestos found in lung specimens came from talcum powder.
  • The author pointed to a discrepancy: the control-value table counted fibers 1 micrometer or less in length, while the methods section required asbestos structures at least five micrometers long.
  • The author argued that because the case series had no comparison group, its data support a claim of association but fall short of establishing causation.
  • The author stated that comprehensive reviews by others of cosmetic talc millers and miners found no pleural mesotheliomas, and that the case series did not address these findings.
  • The author stated that the case series did not report or explain published studies that found no cases of malignant mesothelioma in patients undergoing talc pleurodesis.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the assertion that talcum powders can cause mesothelioma should be viewed with skepticism, citing questions about the fiber burden analysis, the lack of a control group and statistical analysis, and inconsistency with other published results.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer, Mesothelioma, Talc and vermiculite.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Cosmetic Talc, Malignant Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Authors' Response to "Evidence Does Not Support Exposure to Cosmetic Talc as a Cause of Malignant Mesothelioma" — J. Moline, K. Bevilacqua, et al. (2020)
• A quantitative weight of evidence assessment of Hill's guidelines for causal inference for cosmetic talc as a cause of mesothelioma — A.M. Ierardi, A. Urban, et al. (2021)
• Cosmetic talc as a risk factor for pleural mesothelioma: a weight of evidence evaluation of the epidemiology — B.L. Finley, S.M. Benson, et al. (2017)
• Re: Brent L. Finley, Stacey M. Benson & Gary M. Marsh (2017): Cosmetic talc as a risk factor for pleural mesothelioma: a weight of evidence evaluation of the epidemiology, Inhalation Toxicology, DOI: 10.1080/08958378.2017.1336187 — M.M. Finkelstein (2017)
• Letter on: "Cosmetic talc as a risk factor for pleural mesothelioma: a weight of evidence evaluation of the epidemiology" — D. Mirabelli (2017)
• Response to letters regarding "Cosmetic talc as a risk factor for pleural mesothelioma: a weight of evidence evaluation of the epidemiology" — B.L. Finley, S.M. Benson, et al. (2018)

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