TALCUM POWDER AND TETANUS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24901, 14 June 1946, Page 6

TALCUM POWDER AND TETANUS

DR. MARTIN TWEED’S VIEWS .

SUGGESTION OF PUBLIC INQUIRY

A public inquiry into the recent deaths of Infahts from tetanus was suggested by Dr. Martin Tweed, formerly medical adviser to the Plunket Society, jp a statement to the press yesterday. Dr. Tweed said the public was entitled to the following information:

The names of all powders which had been found to contain the spores of tetanus. What action was to be takeh against the people responsible. Full details as to how the tragedies happened. What legislation was in force to ensure that all manufacturers of proprietary toilet products were compelled to see that their -»reparations contained nothing harmful to the user. If such legislation existed to safeguard the public, why had the Government and the Health Department not enforced it? Dr. Tweed said the public must have been filled with horror and with indignation—indignation with the Health Department, because its supervision of raw* materials .had been inadequate and because it was so complacent that it could issue a statement to the effect that it had kept, in close touch with the position.' that it did not consider any particular blame could be attributed to the manufacturers, and that it could confidently say there should be no recurrence. He could well remember being told as a boy that there was danger of “lockjaw” from the use of fuller’s earth on scratches and abrasions, said Dr. Tweed. The chairman of the New Zealand Cosmetic and Toilet Preparation Manufacturers’ Association (Mr W. B. Owen) had said that, to the best of the industry’s knowledge, medical statistics did not record one such previous case of tetanus infection. Tetanus in Infants “I would point out that tetanus in the newborn infant is, or' was, an extremely common disease in many countries/ said Dr. Tweed. “Von Reuss quotes figures to show that in Rumania more than 10,000 infants died of tetanus in 1904. J. C. Spence, in ‘Diseases tf Infancy and Childhood.’ says; ‘lt survives mainly amongst races whose tribal customs lead them to apply strange concoctions to the umbilical stump of the infant.’ Westcott has drawn attention to the frequent deaths of infants by tetanus when fuller’s earth has been applied to sores on the navel or buttocks. Various silicates, such as talc, fujler’s earth, and french chalk, are used as the basis of talcum powders.’’ Dr Tweed said the public would have been fully justified in assuming that the manufacturers of proprietary brands of talcum powders had taken every precaution to safeguard the health of users. Therefore, the public was fully justified in holding the manufacturers strictly to account for any harm that could come to a user pf their widely-advertised and recommended preparations, No reputable obstetrician would countenance the use of talcum powder, sterilised or unsterilised as a dressing for the umbilical eord. Thp Plunket Society had always taught mothers not to use “bafav powders." and he could not understand why the Plunket Society had not taken this opportunity tp make the fact more widely known. Si r Truby King would turn in his grave at the thought of anv mother or nurse using powder in dressing a baby’s umbilical cord. Illustrated advertisements were responsible for oemetuating the antiquated and unhvgienic practice of usips? talpurp nbwdprs for dusting babies. Dr. Tweed said. Was it not possible that some deaths of infants in NewZealand had bpen due to tetanus and had been classified as “convulsions?”