Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the safety of talc in medicines.

The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is the Government agency responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe.

Additives in medicines, termed excipients, are required to comply with the standards laid down in pharmacopeial monographs and can only be included in medicinal products at levels that are considered to be safe.

The MHRA is aware of general concerns in relation to the presence of asbestos in talcum powder, however, pharmaceutical grade talc has strict controls on the presence of asbestos. The British Pharmacopeia monograph for Purified Talc states that “Talc derived from deposits that are known to contain associated asbestos is not suitable for pharmaceutical use”. Furthermore, testing is required to confirm the absence of asbestos.