Walmart, CVS, Rite Aid pull Johnson & Johnson baby powder from stores

Three major retailers are removing all 22-ounce bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby powder from their shelves following the company’s voluntary recall last week after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found trace amounts of asbestos in the product.

Rite Aid and CVS said they have been working to clear their store stock since the announcement last Friday. The companies said they would continue carrying all other sizes of the talc. 

{mosads}”We are complying with Johnson & Johnson’s voluntary recall of Johnson’s Baby Powder 22 oz. and have removed this product from all stores and from CVS.com,” spokesman Mike DeAngelis said in a statement to The Hill. “We also initiated a ‘Do Not Sell’ register prompt in our stores to prevent the sale of this item during the product removal process.”

Customers who purchased the product from CVS locations are being advised to discontinue use, and return it for a refund.

In an emailed statement, Rite Aid said it has “informed all stores to pull all product from shelves and store it in a secure location. Additionally, we’ve applied a point of sale system block for this product to prevent it from being sold.”

Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, also said it has removed and blocked the recalled baby powder from being sold.

Johnson & Johnson last week announced a recall of about 33,000 bottles of its baby powder after small amounts of asbestos were found in a bottle purchased online.

Asbestos is a known carcinogen that has been linked to mesothelioma.

The company said it was initiating the recall “out of an abundance of caution.” It is working with the FDA, which tested the product, and is investigating how and when the product was contaminated.

Johnson & Johnson is facing thousands of lawsuits brought by plaintiffs who allege that talc in the company’s baby powder products contained asbestos and caused mesothelioma, ovarian cancer and other diseases.

The company insists its talc products are safe and has noted the traces of asbestos were only found in one bottle and were minute.