On January 9, 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it will host an all-day public
forum to discuss testing methods for asbestos in talc and cosmetic
products containing talc on February 4, 2020.
According to the FDA, the purpose of the meeting is to discuss
testing methods, terminology, and criteria that can be used to
characterize and measure asbestos, as well as what the FDA
preliminarily states may be "other potentially harmful
elongate mineral particles (EMPs)" that may contaminate talc
and cosmetics products that contain talc.
The forum also will include discussion of recently-published preliminary recommendations from the
Interagency Working Group on Asbestos in Consumer Products
(IWGACP)—an interagency working group formed in 2018 to
support the development of standardized testing methods for
asbestos and other EMPs.