J&J should stick to unified global standard for its products in China

A non-profit U.S. health group released a report saying earlier last week that U.S. consumer product giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) still sells baby shampoo that contains two harmful chemicals in 13 countries including China and the United States, while the company sells such products in at least eight other countries without such chemicals. Between July and October of 2011, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics purchased and reviewed labels of Johnson's Baby Shampoo sold in 13 countries to see if the products contained quaternium-15.The organization found that the shampoo sold in the United States, Australia, Canada, China and Indonesia contains quaternium-15, while the shampoo sold in Denmark, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden and the UK contain non-formaldehyde preservatives. The organization, which has been urging the company to remove the two chemicals from its baby products since 2009, said J&J is using "double standards" in different markets. On March 12, 2009, it announced test results on 48 J&J's baby products, including body wash, shampoo and soaps. Of the 48 types of tested products, 23 contained potential carcinogens: quaternium-15 and 1,4-dioxane. One of the chemicals, quaternium-15, is a preservative that kills bacteria by releasing formaldehyde, which can cause breathing problems and was declared as a human carcinogen by the World Health Organization in 2005. The other chemical, 1,4-dioxane, which is a byproduct of a process for making chemicals more soluble and gentler on the skin, is suspected of causing damage to the central nervous system, liver and kidneys. "Johnson & Johnson clearly can make safer baby shampoo in all the markets around the world, but it's not doing it," Lisa Archer, director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, told the Associated Press. "It's clearly a double standard, something they can easily fix."