Introducing Talc Tales

How They Made Us Doubt Everything

Is there asbestos in make-up? If you look through your make-up bag, you might have a blusher, eye shadow or face powder that contains the ingredient talc. But there are questions about its safety. Women diagnosed with cancer have started launching court cases against cosmetics companies claiming some products are contaminated with asbestos.

It turns out, the issue of asbestos contamination in talc is not new. Thanks to recent court cases, once secret company memos now reveal how the talc industry first started to discuss this issue in the 1970s. Why is asbestos showing up in products decades later?

After chronicling the tactics used by big tobacco to delay regulation on smoking and then by big oil to delay regulation on climate change in series 1, Phoebe Keane investigates whether similar tactics have been used again to create the idea that there was a controversy and to cast doubt over the science.

Presenter and producer: Phoebe Keane Sound mix: James Beard Series Editor: Matt Willis