TALCUM POWDER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 89, 21 June 1946, Page 4

TALCUM POWDER

TO suggest that the public has been startled by the disclosure of tetanus spores in talcum powder is not an over-state-ment. Rumours of deaths in Auckland maternity homes had preceded the first official announcement by the Health Department, but when it came it was obvious that all users of talcum powder which has not been carefully sterilised by heat were incurring a degree of risk. The Health Department naturally had to carry out careful laboratory tests before reaching a definite conclusion, but the public is at a loss to understand why the name of the imported brand of powder to which the deaths were traceable was not at once made public. Tetanus is a deadly disease when medical attention is not prompt and the department could have reduced the risk to the lowest possible point by issuing an immediate warning against the powder responsible for the deaths. To announce now that the distributors have “frozen” all supplies of this powder in retailers’ hands and that all talcum may be recalled for sterilisation are satisfactory moves as far as they go. But the risk remains that infected powder is still being used by the public. Full publicity may be harmful to the makers; but silence could cause the loss of human lives.