I rummage through my make-up bag, checking the ingredients in face powder, eye shadow and blush. The reason I cover my carpet in sparkly beige powder is that these products that contain talc can also have traces of something that shouldn’t be there, something deadly: asbestos.

The spark for this interest was Hannah Fletcher, 48, a mother of two from Oxshott, Surrey, and one-time City high-flyer. In 2017, she was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer that had affected the lining of her abdomen. It is difficult to treat and after diagnosis 55 percent of patients die within a year.

But Fletcher’s doctor also advised her to call a lawyer, since mesothelioma is almost exclusively caused by exposure to asbestos. When her cancerous tissue was examined, a pathologist concluded that, in their opinion, Fletcher’s cancer was caused by exposure to asbestos in her talc-based cosmetics. She decided to sue the American companies that made her favorite products. The judgment in the New York case named these as Avon, Estée Lauder and Clinique. On the eve of her 2020 trial, the companies offered Fletcher a settlement, though she can’t say how much because she has signed a non-disclosure agreement.

“Dozens” of lawsuits in the US have now been filed by British women against cosmetics companies, said Fletcher’s lawyer Harminder Bains, a partner at the London firm Leigh Day. Bains has a case set for trial next year, while other law firms have cases set for trial later this year. The reason these are being brought into the US, Bains says, is that “the way the law stands in the UK, it would be difficult to succeed in these cases (here). The law in the US (makes it) easier to succeed in these CASE.’ Fletcher believes it was important to take action: “It felt like all this trauma and terrible impact on our lives had been so unnecessary. I’m really angry, because my life has been ruined.’

As part of my research for the BBC Radio 4 podcast Talc Tales, which came out this summer, I found that talc is used in powder cosmetics to ensure they glide on smoothly and to prevent caking (check your product labels for talc ). , talc and/or magnesium silicate). It’s also a main ingredient in talcum powder, which women have historically been encouraged to pat on their babies or their own perineum. This naturally occurring mineral is often found with asbestos minerals in the soil. Both are formed under similar conditions and made of the same chemical elements. So if you have talc in the soil, you may have asbestos too.

Asbestos can cause fatal diseases because it breaks down into microscopic fibers that can be easily inhaled. Because of their long, thin shape, the fibers penetrate deep into the lungs and beyond. Since the fibers cannot be broken down by our bodies, they remain and eventually cause lung cancer or mesothelioma.

The issue of asbestos contamination in talc has been debated at cosmetics companies as far back as the 1970s, but only became a public scandal when it entered the courts in the 2010s.

Hannah, whose mesothelioma was diagnosed in 2017, sued three beauty brands

Already in the 70s, Johnson & Johnson had the lion’s share of the talcum powder market. It owned its own talc mines, and the fragrant Baby Powder was in bathroom cabinets around the world. But internal records appear to show that the company was aware that asbestos was present in its talc supply tests from at least 1971 until the early 2000s. Three independent laboratories tested samples and all found asbestos fibers. Then, in 1973, Johnson & Johnson’s head of research went to its mines in Vermont and reported that in talc, “sometimes sub-trace amounts of tremolite or actinolite can be identified. And these can be classified as asbestos fibers.

When I sent this to the company, Johnson & Johnson told me that “one of these tests showed less than 1/100 of one percent asbestos in the material” but that “the testing was ‘busy’ and the ‘findings could not be replicated’.”

Many more internal memos were examined during a court case launched in the US in 2018, when 22 women and their families alleged that Johnson & Johnson talc products caused them to develop ovarian cancer. They all regularly used talc on their genitals and they were all seriously ill. Some died before the end of the trial. The jury found that Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder products contained asbestos and that the company had failed to warn users of the potential for harm. The jury found that this failure caused or directly contributed to the deaths or cancers that afflicted the 22 women. The company was ordered to pay around £1.5bn in damages – one of the biggest pharmaceutical payouts of all time.

Johnson & Johnson eventually stopped using talc in its Baby Powder in 2023 but still claims the product was safe, saying sales were down due to “misinformation about the product’s safety and a constant barrage of litigation advertising”. The company told me: “Allegations that our talc could harm consumers is a concern that Johnson & Johnson took very seriously. Time and time again, independent testing has shown that Johnson’s Baby Powder is free of asbestos.’

Earlier this year, I sent newly purchased versions of eight make-up products I use that contain talc – from expensive blush and bronzer to high street eyeshadow – to Brunel University’s Experimental Techniques Center in London for testing. Using the most sensitive microscope, the researchers found an asbestos fiber in every sample from a dry shampoo and an eyeshadow palette. I was told that at least three fibers had to be found to confirm that the asbestos came from the makeup, despite strict protocols to ensure that the lab was not the source of the contamination.

This is not the first test of its kind. In 2021, the UK government’s Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) commissioned tests of 60 low-cost eye shadows and face powders and 24 “child-appealing” make-up products. In one of the latter, one asbestos fiber was found, and two of the low-cost samples had three and five asbestos fibers.

OPSS told me: “The levels found during the tests did not indicate a breach of the cosmetics regulation.” Bains says, “There is no safe level.” The law governing cosmetics is vague. In the UK there is no regulation stating how talc-based cosmetics should be tested for asbestos; the industry’s voluntary standard is based on a test method devised in 1976. Unfortunately, says geologist Sean Fitzgerald, it is not sensitive enough to pick up all the asbestos fibers that may be present in talc: “The problem we identified is that it takes tens of thousands of asbestos fibers to answer using this test method.’

However, these tests only find trace amounts of asbestos fibers in cosmetics. Do these low levels pose a health risk? Dr Astero Klampatsa, mesothelioma and lung cancer immunologist at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, says we don’t know how many asbestos fibers it takes to cause cancer. “Cases have occurred even with short-term or low exposures to asbestos. The only real way to say we are at a safe level is if we have no exposure to asbestos at all.

So using a beauty product that may contain a fiber of asbestos poses minimal risk. If we say that one uses this product over time continuously, then this risk increases, because it is cumulative. But even with these many uses, the overall risk remains very, very low. Having said that, I would advise you to avoid any unnecessary exposure. I would choose a talc-free product.’ But this advice came too late for Hannah Fletcher, whose cancer has now spread and cannot be treated.

Estée Lauder, which also owns Clinique, denied responsibility, saying: “The Estée Lauder Companies are committed to selling safe products – we only use talcum powder that has been tested and certified as asbestos-free.” Avon told me: “All talc used by Avon is the highest quality cosmetic grade and has been tested to confirm that it does not contain asbestos.”

Bains is currently working on dozens of similar cases. “What really needs to be hammered home here is that it’s not just talc. It’s in cosmetics like blush, face powder, eye shadow,” she says. And it wasn’t just in products years ago. It’s in products now.’

How They Made Us Doubt Everything: Talc Tales is available now on BBC Sounds

Sarah M Lee/Eyevine, Getty Images