[Nigel Brown]

Another great article Ami, I read that in November 2020 nearly 15% of talc-based cosmetic products analyzed in a recent study in America contained asbestos.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG), an American advocacy nonprofit that commissioned the tests and did the analysis, stated methods used by the cosmetics industry to screen talc supplies are inadequate. The voluntary testing method developed by industry is not sensitive enough to screen for asbestos when compared to electron microscopy, the group said.

Many well-known brands use talc in body and facial powders that can be inhaled,” said Nneka Leiba, an EWG vice president. EWG’s online database has identified more than 2,000 personal care products that contain talc, including more than 1,000 loose or pressed powders that could pose an inhalation risk.

“It’s troubling to think how many Americans have been using talc-based cosmetics products potentially contaminated with asbestos,” Leiba said in an EWG news release last year. The analysis was published on November 25 2020 in the journal Environmental Health Insights.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not require testing talc supplies for the the worlds known carcinogen, asbestos! Even with the knowledge that talc forms naturally with asbestos with contaminates the talc during mining, and is impossible to separate the 2 minerals.

The Scientific Analytical Institute who conducted the tests, using electron microscopy to analyze samples.

“It is critical that the FDA develop a rigorous screening method for talc used in personal care products,” said Sean Fitzgerald, head of the Greensboro, N.C.-based institute. “The lab repeatedly finds asbestos in products made with talc, including cosmetics marketed to children. It’s outrageous that a precise method for testing personal care products for the presence of asbestos exists, but the cosmetics industry isn’t required to use it.”

Fitzgerald’s lab tested 21 samples of powder cosmetics, including eye shadow, foundation, blush, face and body powders.

Talc is often used in cosmetics as a filler or to improve texture or absorb moisture. Talc and asbestos can be formed in the same rocks that are mined for both cosmetics use and industrial use. The federal government does not require that cosmetics be tested for asbestos, instead encouraging companies to select talc mines carefully to avoid asbestos contamination, according to the study.

[Nigel Brown]

Baku and Yerevan have been in a state of a semi-permanent war since 1988, always tittering on the edge of a knife in the name of national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

But, Azerbaijan and Armenia’s territorial dispute dates back to 1918, following the disintegration of the Transcaucasian Federation, when both states laid claims to territories they respectively understood as ethnically and historically theirs.

With Turkey threats and interference this will only lead to more inflammation in a volatile area meaning more suffering for the people on both sides.