Sri Lanka has suspended imports of the company's powder to prove it is free of cancer-causing asbestos, government officials and a local distributor for Johnson & Johnson said.
The existing product can still be sold in Sri Lanka, but there will be no new imports of talc powder, a commonly used product in Sri Lanka and most parts of Asia, until Johnson & Johnson India, of which Sri Lanka imports, produces the results of the new tests.
The Reuters news agency reported on December 14 that the US company has known for decades that asbestos is in the composition of powder, leading to tests in several countries, including India. Based on its thousands of pages of company papers, internal reports and other confidential documents.
Johnson & Johnson described the Reuters report as "biased, false and inflammatory".