BABY POWDERS

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27664, 21 May 1955, Page 10

BABY POWDERS

INHALATION DANGER DISCUSSED It was most unlikely that any permanent damage to the lungs could result from casual exposure through inhalation of baby powder, said Dr. T Morton. Medical Superintendent of the Christchurch Hospital, replying to a correspondent to the editor of “The Press.” Mrs A. J. Banens, the correspondent, said she had read in a medical book that it was very dangerous for children to play with an open tin of baby i powder when the powder contained a zinc preparation. The breathing-in of the powder could cause a serious and often incurable lung disease, the article said, and Mrs Banens asked whether, if it was correct, parents should be warned. The composition of baby powders varied largely, but no doubt most of them contained talc, which itself varied considerably in composition and was mainly a silicate of magnesium with a variable content of free silica, Dr. Morton said. “It appears that many years of exposure to inhalation elapse before sillicosis develops,” he continued. “Zinc stearate may be found in dusting powders and has caused toxic symptoms in children from inhalation of the powder. The symptoms occur immediately and vary in severity according to the amount inhaled. “Twelve cases were recorded in 1922. One patient died in 24 hours, three developed broncho-pneumonia, and in the others there were symptoms of asphyxia.”