From possible asbestos contamination to the association with the risk of ovarian cancer: what leads to classifying talc as “probably carcinogenic”?
Best known for its use in baby powder, but present in many other products, talc was classified as “probably carcinogenic†for human beings through International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO). The result of the experts’ assessment, announced last week, is no reason for alarm – but there are some aspects to take into account, according to the experts interviewed by Expresso.
The decision is “prudent†, given that the analysis of available scientific literature concluded the existence of “limited evidence” in relation to humans, “sufficient evidence” in experiments with animals and also “strong mechanistic evidence”, that is, “toxicity mechanisms” that point to “development of changes in genome order†, evaluates Ricardo Dinis Oliveira, toxicologist at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP) and the University Institute of Health Sciences-CESPU.
The limitation is due to the fact that it was not possible to exclude the contamination of talc with asbestos, which is a substance already classified as carcinogenic by the WHO agency: it is placed in group 1, while talc agora figure no 2A, the second highest level. The risk of contamination exists because both are mineral compounds and, above all, if frequent analyzes are not carried out to determine this by those who sell the products.
