​‘Nothing Else Matters over Public Health’: Maharashtra Govt on Cancelling Johnson & Johnson’s Licence to Make Baby Powder

Nothing else matters when it comes to public health at large, the Maharashtra government told the Bombay high court on Thursday in its reply to the petition filed by Johnson & Johnson against the cancellation of their licence to manufacture baby powder. Raising doubts about the pH value and standards prescribed by the BIS, the reply said: “It is further submitted that, it will be wrong to believe that, Petitioner says that, pH of powder does not impact the safety / public including infant as the limits of pH is prescribed in BIS standard which similar way number of other cosmetics like baby soap also has a test for pH. This can be verified and observed from different topics research documents available on various web sites on the internet about the subject.” The state, in its reply, submitted before the court that two samples of the Johnson’s Baby Powder were collected from two different places and were sent for testing to Pune and Nashik. The petition was filed by the company challenging the state government’s decision to cancel the company’s license for manufacturing Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder effective from December 15.