China Clears J&J in Probe of Baby-Product Chemicals

By LORETTA CHAO

BEIJING -- Chinese health authorities said Johnson & Johnson baby products were safe to use, concluding investigations of claims by a U.S. activist group that the products contained cancer-causing chemicals.

China's State Food and Drug Administration said on its Web site Saturday that it concluded after inspections that formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane weren't used as additives in dozens of J&J baby products sold in China. China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Saturday that the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine also cleared the products.

Associated Press

Beijing has rejected objections by activists to J&J baby products. Above, an infant in Xiangfran in central China.

Last week, Shanghai-based Nonggongshan Supermarkets Corp. pulled J&J's baby products from the shelves of the supermarket chain's 3,500 stores in China, after a report by Campaign for Safe Cosmetics said trace levels of formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane found in the products were unsafe for children because the chemicals can cause cancer.

J&J, based in New Brunswick, N.J., has denied the group's allegations, saying both chemicals are safe in trace amounts and that the company's products were in compliance with safety laws in all the countries where it sells them.

Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition of American nonprofit organizations, is urging J&J to reformulate its products to exclude the chemicals anyway.

Gan Pingzhong, director of Nonggongshan's quality-inspection department, said Sunday the supermarket chain had resumed sales of the products after authorities cleared them.

J&J is the largest seller of infant skin lotions and other baby-care products in China, with 69% of the $395 million market by revenue last year, according to market-research firm Euromonitor International.

Formaldehyde, often used as a preservative in cosmetics, is permitted for use in cosmetics in China to a maximum concentration of 0.2%, according to the State Food and Drug Administration. Its statement said 1,4-dioxane, a common byproduct in the manufacturing process for cosmetics, is banned as an additive in cosmetics, but the Xinhua report said the chemical isn't otherwise regulated in China.

Write to Loretta Chao at loretta.chao@wsj.com