Johnson & Johnson is taking talc out of its baby powder. 

Johnson & Johnson has announced talc-based baby powder will be off Australian shelves in 2023. 

The company is transitioning to a cornstarch base, which is already available in Australia. 

“As part of a worldwide portfolio assessment, we have made the commercial decision to transition to an all cornstarch-based baby powder portfolio,” it said. 

The company ended US sales of talc-based powder due to thousands of consumer safety lawsuits several years ago. 

Johnson & Johnson says demand has been hit hard by te “misinformation” about the product's safety. 

Almost 40,000 lawsuits have been raised by consumers and survivors who claim the talc-based products cause cancer due to contamination with asbestos.

In October, Johnson & Johnson spun off a new company called LTL Management, and assigned its talc claims to it. 

The spin-off company was immediately placed into bankruptcy, pausing the pending lawsuits.

Johnson & Johnson denies the asbestos allegations, claiming decades of scientific testing and regulatory approvals show its talc is safe and asbestos-free.

An investigation by Reuters in 2018 found the company knew that small amounts of the carcinogen, asbestos, sometimes presented in its talc products.

Professor Bernard Stewart from the Cancer Council says the current evidence that talc-based powders cause cancer is “very slight” and “far from established”.