Green Party MP Sue Kedgley has called on Health Minister
David Cunliffe to seek an urgent assessment of the risks of
using talcum powder in the female genital area, including for
female babies.
But a spokesman for the regulatory agency which would be
responsible for such a risk assessment has suggested the
response will depend on what European regulators do rather
than local concerns.
Ms Kedgley, chairwoman of the health select committee in the
last Parliament, asked for New Zealanders to be alerted to
advice from Harvard Medical School researchers who said women
should stop using talcum powder around their genital area,
because it could greatly increase their risk of ovarian
cancer.
Ms Kedgley also asked for New Zealand hospitals, medical
practitioners, and midwives to be advised talc should not be
used in the genital areas of babies until further research
has been done.
Safer alternatives such as corn starch should be used instead
of talc.
A spokeswoman for Associate Health Minister Steve Chadwick
said yesterday she had not yet been briefed by Ministry of
Health officials.
Today, the national clinical director of the ministry cancer
programme, John Childs, told the ministry had only become
aware of the Harvard Medical School research through news
reports.
Asked what the ministry was doing to warn women, Dr Childs
said: "The findings of this study and the implications will
have to be carefully reviewed before further comment can be
made."
He said the implications for New Zealand of new research
findings were "being constantly reviewed".
"When there is an appropriate level of evidence, advice can
be provided to inform development of new information to the
public," he said.
But a spokesman for the Environmental Risk Management
Authority (Erma), Mark Walles, was more blunt, saying that
New Zealand relied heavily on European regulatory authorities
for guidance on regulation of non-medical cosmetics, and is
unlikely to seek label warnings on talcum powder unless it
was first required in Europe.
"We run in parallel, basically, with the European Union, so
we upgrade ourselves to their level," Mr Walles said.
The EU had significant research capability, and NZ's
standards were closely aligned to those of the EU.
"If there is a threat to public safety from talcum powder,
Erma will publicly notify an assessment," he said.
The new scientific work, published this year, shows particles
of talc applied to women's genitals may travel to the ovaries
and cause inflammation that allows cancer cells to flourish.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School in Boston said using
talc only once a week raised the risk of cancer by 36
percent, rising to 41 percent for those applying powder every
day.
And women carrying a gene called glutathione S-transferase
M1, or GSTM1, but lacking a gene called glutathione
S-transferase T1 (GSTT1) -- about one-in-10 Caucasian women
-- are nearly three times as likely to develop tumours.
A spokesman for a major manufacturer, Johnson and Johnson
Pacific said today its own scientists "are confident of the
safety of talc".
Nine studies reviewed in 1994 at a big international workshop
on health perspectives of talc led experts to say
epidemiology studies did not show an association between talc
and ovarian cancer.
Another evaluation published in 2007 showed no association
between talc in the genital area and ovarian cancer.
But Ms Kedgley said the latest US research had shown not only
that inert particles can travel through fallopian tubes to
the ovaries but that some genetic groupings of women had a
particularly high risk of ovarian cancer after using talc.
