List of Studies of the Dangers of Talcum Powder
List of Scientific Studies
On this page we have compiled a list of talcum powder studies performed by various institutions around the world, and have listed their results. News sources report a varying amount of studies on the effects of genital talcum powder use, but we have found 20 total studies online from 1971 to 2016, 14 of which found a strong positive association between the genital use of talcum powder and occurences of ovarian cancer. The first study in 1971 should be discounted however, as asbestos was an ingredient in talcum powder up until 1973, and asbestos is a known carcinogen that would have affected the results of the study. The 7 remaining studies either did not find any link between talc and ovarian cancer, or the findings were positive but not statistically significant (Any link could have been coincidental). More information on ovarian cancer and subsequent lawsuits can be found here.
We have compiled the results of all of these studies and links here, as a comprehensive reference for those who want to know the scientific consensus on this topic.
Note: Red Numbers indicate that a positive association has been found between genital or abdominal talcum powder use and increased risk of ovarian cancer. Green numbers indicate no significant association between talc and ovarian cancer could be found.
Summary:
This study was performed to examine the similarities between the
minerals talc and asbestos and whether talc use, which at the time
contained asbestos, had any effect on cancer in the ovaries and
cervix. The authors took 13 subjects with ovarian or cervical cancer
and obtained tissue samples from them, to determine if any talc
particles were present in the samples.
Results:
10 out of 13 of the samples were found to have contained talc
particles, and no asbestos particles were found in any of the
samples. This was the first study that suggested there may be a link
between talc use and ovarian cancer. However, these results imply
nothing more than correlation, and the results of the study should
be discounted due to the presence of asbestos, a known carcinogen,
in the talc. Asbestos was removed from talcum powders in 1973.
Summary:
This case-control study was undertaken to explore in more detail the
association between ovarian cancer and the regular genital use of
talc products such as baby powder. Researchers interviewed 215 women
with ovarian cancer and found 215 controls who matched the age, race
and residence of the cases. The study also took into account when
talc was dusted on condoms or on diaphragms.
Results:
This study found that there was a significantly higher amount of
ovarian cancer cases in subjects who used talc, either as dusting
powder or on sanitary napkins. This conclusion still held true even
when accounting for interviewer and selection bias.
Summary:
This study interviewed 116 female residents with serious ovarian
tumors and interviewed 158 control subjects in the same area, with
regards to their use of hygenic powders.
Results:
There was no difference in risk of ovarian tumors between women who
used baby powder or corn starch and those who did not. However, the
results showed that women who specifically used talc-containing
deodorizing powders had 2.8 times the risk of an ovarian tumor. This
result showed that there was a difference between powders containing
talc and those that did not contain talc.
Summary:
This study was conducted to determine if vaginal exposure to talc
increased the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. Researchers
assessed talcum powder use in 188 women with epithelial ovarian
tumors and in 539 control subjects. Other factors such as
consumption of coffee, tobacco, and alcohol were also reviewed.
Results:
Though there was some data showing that perineal use of talcum
powder more than 20 times a month were at 1.45 times the risk for
ovarian cancer, this data was not statistically significant, and
therefore must be treated as though it was a sampling error. Thus,
the study reported that there was no significant link between baby
powder use and ovarian cancer.
Summary:
This study was conducted to determine whether several factors
including Mentrual Characteristics, reporductive and contraceptive
history, and history of exposure to environmental factors like baby
powder increase the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. The study was
completed with 235 women diagnosed with cancer and 451 controls.
Results:
According to the findings, women who used talc once a week or more
had increased for getting ovarian cancer. However, the study notes
that this evidence can be controversial since the women were not
asked how long they had been using talc, or their frequency of past
use.
Summary:
This study of 112 ovarian cancer cases in Chinese women and 224
controls evaluated the risk of ovarian cancer with regard to
reproductive, medical, familial, and lifestyle factors.
Results:
The study found that perineal use of talcum powder increased the
risk of ovarian cancer after 3 months of usage. Researchers
concluded that this was similar to findings from other institutions
around the world.
Summary:
This study involving 824 women with ovarian cancer and 860 controls
explored the risks factors associated with ovarian cancer. In
addition to talc use, other factors reviewed were use of oral
contraceptives, hysterectomy, tubal ligation, number of incomplete
pregnancies, BMI, menstrual history, hormone replacement therapy,
history of cancer, and smoking.
Results:
Researchers found that talc use in the abdominal or perineal region
was positively associated with the occurrence of ovarian cancer.
This study also found that smoking, high BMI, and family history of
ovarian cancer was positively associated.
Summary:
This study notes the former research into the effects of talcum
powder within the ovaries and expands on it by examining 450 ovarian
cancer patients and 564 controls in southern Ontario. Subjects were
interviewed about reproductive and menstrual histories.
Results:
The study concluded that exposure to talc was significantly
associated with risk of ovarian cancer. However, duration of talc
exposeure only showed a borderline significant association when
examining subjects with 10 years of exposure, and there was no
significant association found between the risk of cancer and the
frequency of exposure.
Summary:
The abstract for this study noted that previous studies concerning
baby powder use had their biological associations called into
question, and repeated the talc-ovarian cancer association study
with 563 newly diagnosed epithelial ovarian cancer patients, and 523
controls from eastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Results:
The results of the study showed that ovarian cancer cases were more
likely than the controls to have used talcum powder, and after
adjusting for age, location, parity, oral contraceptive use, BMI,
and family history of cancer, users of talc were 60% more likely to
develop ovarian cancer than those who did not use talc. The
association was stronger for women who were exposed to talcum powder
before having a child, and for women with serous epithelial cancer,
as opposed to mucinous epithelial cancer. The study concluded that
more public health warnings about the risks of powders containing
talc were warrented.
Summary:
This study performed by the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in New
York, used 327 patients with epithelial ovarian cancer as subjects
and 693 controls. The study adjusted for age, medical history,
smoking history, and common demographic metrics.
Results:
This study found no significant association between talc use and
epithelial ovarian cancer even for women who had used baby powder or
other talc products for more than 20 years. Additionally, patients
with a history of tubal ligation or hysterectomy were also not found
to have a significant risk for development of cancer.
Summary:
This study acknowldeged the potential for recall or selection bias
in previous studies and attempted to shed more light on the talc
controversy. Researchers ascertained talc exposure prior to the
development of ovarian cancer for the subjects, and ran a
prospective analysis to determine if there was a talc/cancer link
without resporting to a case-control study.
Results:
The conclusion of this study did not observe an overall association
between ovarian cancer and the use of talc, though it did observe a
small increase in serous ovarian cancer in women who had used the
product at least once. There were some limitations of the study, the
primary one being that there was no available information on the
duration of use of the talc.
Summary:
This study compared 767 cases of recently diagnosed ovarian cancer
with 1367 controls to determine what the role of inflammation was in
developing ovarian cancer.
Results:
Several factors were found to have reduced risk of ovarian cancer,
including breast feeding, oral contraceptives, and the number of
times a woman has been pregnant. Hysterectomies and tubal ligation
was also found to have reduced the risk of ovarian cancer. Talc use,
endometriosis, ovarian cysts, and hyperthyroidism were found to have
increased the risk of cancer.
Summary:
This study was conducted with 256 ovarian cancer cases in the
California Central Valley, along with 1,122 controls. Subjects were
questioned about perineal talc use, how often it was used, and for
how many years it was used, as well as other demographic factors.
Results:
The study found that there was an increased association of ovarian
cancer with perineal talc use, but there was no dose response
assocation, meaning that this association did not increase as women
dusted more frequently. Talc use resulted in the highest risk for
serous invasive tumors, and this risk was cut dramatically in women
who had undergone tubal ligation.
Summary:
A study of 1,576 Austrailian women with low malignant potential
(LMP) ovarian tumors and 1,509 controls was performed to determine
whether chronic inflammation was the causal mechanism by which talc
use would increase the risk of ovarian cancer.
Results:
The study found that there was a statistically significant
association between talc use in the pelvic region and serous
epithelial ovarian cancer, and that there was also an assocation for
endometrioid ovarian cancer, but this was not significant. It also
found that there was an increased risk of only endometrioid and
clear cell ovarian cancer among women with a history of
endometriosis. Regular usage of anti-inflammatory drugs reduced the
risk of LMP mucinous ovarian tumors but no other subtype of cancer.
The final conclusion was that chronic inflammation is not a major
factor in ovarian cancer risk.
Summary:
This study aimed to understand the biological basis for the
assocation between talc use and ovarian cancer. It examined 1,175
cases and 1,202 controls from a new england case-control study, and
201 cases and 600 controls from a prospective Nurse's Health study.
Results:
Talc was found to have an association with increased risk of cancer,
but especially in women who had the GSTT1-null genotype and the
GSTM1-present genotype. Women with only the GSTM1 or NAT2 genes did
not show any signs of assocation. The results suggest that only
certain women with specific genotypes will experience an increased
risk for ovarian cancer when using talcum powder.
Summary:
This study examined the effect that inflammation has on the
development of ovarian cancer, specifically in concjuntion with talc
use, history of endometriosis, and anti-inflammatory drugs. The
study examined 609 women with newly diagnosed epithelial ovarian
cancer and 688 controls in Los Angeles County.
Results:
The study concluded that both talc use and history of endometriosis
increased the risk of ovarian cancer - up to 3 times the normal risk
if both factors were present. On the other hand, the frequent use of
anti-inflammatory drugs was found to have increased the risk of
ovarian cancer in this study. This was unexpected due to previous
studies that found that these drugs reduced the risk of cancer.
Summary:
This study took 812 cases and 1313 controls to shed more light on
the association between genital talcum powder use and ovarian cancer
risk. Subjects were asked about their talc use after bathing or on
sanitary napkins or diaphragms.
Results:
The study found a slight increase in risk of ovarian cancer with
talc use after bathing, but no risk increase association with a
longer duration of use or extent of use. The study also found no
increase in risk when using talc on sanitary napkins or diaphragms.
Thus, researchers determined that an association is merely
"possible".
Summary:
This study pooled information and resources from 8 different studies
each regarding ovarian cancer risk increasing with talc usage. The
total cases numbered 8,525, and made use of 9,859 controls.
Results:
After pooling all of the participants' information, the study
concluded that genital poder use was associated with a small risk in
epithelial ovarin cancer, for serous, endometrioid, and clear cell
tumors, as well as borderline serous tumors. However, the study
found no association between the number of lifetime applications or
any association between women who reported non-genital talcum powder
usage.
Summary:
This cohort study enlisted 61,576 participants with 429 ovarian
cancer cases, in an attempt to study the assocation of talc with
ovarian cancer without running a case-control study, which has it's
drawbacks. The average age of these participants was 63.3 years.
Results:
The study could find no association between ever using perineal
powder and an increased risk of ovarian cancer. The study noted that
it had a large sample size and didn't have to rely on the study
cases' memory or biased recollection of their talcum powder use as
much as the case-control studies that came before. However, it had
its limitations including the fact that all women were
post-menopausal and therefore could not gauge the effects of talc on
younger women, and also that the study only mentioned perineal
powder, and not specifically talc - meaning that the subjects may
have been using an alternative like corn starch.
Summary:
This study examined 2,041 women with epithelial ovarian cancer and
used 2,100 age- and residence-matched controls. The study calculated
"talc-years" (or the product of applications per and years used) and
used this number to determine whether there was an increase in
likelihood of ovarian cancer when a subject had a higher count of
talc-years.
Results:
A trend was found of increasing risk of ovarian cancer with an
increase in talc-years. This trend was even more pronounced in
premenopausal women, or postmenopausal women using hormone therapy.
Risks were also found to vary by weight, smoking, and
estrogen/prolactin levels.
Study Limitations
It is important to note the limitations of the studies. Most of the studies were case-control studies, and the subjects of the study were asked to recall their baby powder usage and the frequency and duration of the usage. However, relying on a subjects memory can be dangerous because people's memory is often unreliable and can produce incorrect results.
Another serious limitation is that many of the studies asked patients about their perineal powder use, but failed to specify whether their powder contained talc. Some of the participants could have reported on their corn starch use and skewed the data in that way.
Other studies (19) also studied only a specific demographic, and was unable to get data for the population as a whole.
Study Takeaways
These studies predominantly demonstrated that the usage of talcum powder in the genital area could increase the risk of developing ovarian cancer for certain women. However, they also contained interesting insights regarding talc use and ovarian cancer that is not readily available from existing online medical sources. This data is not necessarily considered medical fact and can be contested, but is still interesting to observe.
- Having a historectomy or tubal ligation lowers the risk of ovarian cancer (Study 4, 12, 13)
- Having a higher BMI (Body Mass Index) raises the risk of ovarian cancer (7)
- Smoking raises the risk of ovarian cancer (7)
- Hyperthyroidism raises the risk of ovarian Cancer (12)
- Ovarian cysts rise the risk of ovarian cancer (7)
- Having the GSTT1 and GSTM1 genes increase the risk of ovarian cancer if subject uses talc (15)
- There is no known association between the length or duration that a subject uses baby powder, and the risk of ovarian cancer (8, 10, 13, 18)
Questions or Comments?
If you have any questions or comments about these studies, or would like more information for your publications, please contact us using the contact form at the top of the page. We have compiled a list of these studies and the location of where they can be found and would be happy to share with any individual or publication.
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