Research by Professor Gerald Markowitz Prompts Rare Lancet Retraction

The Lancet issued a rare retraction of a 1977 commentary that claimed talcum powder posed no serious health risks after new evidence revealed an undisclosed conflict of interest. The evidence was uncovered by Dr. Gerald Markowitz, distinguished professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, and Dr. David Rosner from Columbia University.

Their research found that the unsigned commentary was written by a consultant paid by Johnson & Johnson, a major manufacturer of cosmetic talc. The consultant shared drafts with the company and revised the piece based on its feedback—information that was never disclosed to the journal or its readers.

At the time, scientific evidence already raised concerns about asbestos contamination in talc. The commentary, however, downplayed those risks. According to Markowitz and Rosner, the commentary later played a role in delaying federal regulation and was cited in legal defenses against claims linking talc exposure to serious illness.

In its retraction notice, The Lancet stated that the author’s undisclosed ties to Johnson & Johnson represented “a clear breach of publishing ethics” and that the article would not have been published had the conflict been known. 

Markowitz and Rosner discovered the commentary was written by a Johnson & Johnson paid consultant through internal corporate records released through litigation. Following Markowitz and Rosner’s findings, The Lancet moved quickly to investigate and retract the commentary. 

Markowitz and Rosner have spent decades researching the health impacts of industrial pollutants and the forces that shape their regulation. Since the early 2010s, their work has focused on asbestos exposure and the cosmetics industry’s role in influencing oversight of asbestos-contaminated talc. In addition to their scholarship, they have served as expert witnesses in major toxic exposure cases. 

Markowitz and Rosner also recently won the 2025 Columbia University Press Distinguished Book Award for Building the Worlds That Kill Us: Disease, Death and Inequality in American History. Read more about Professor Markowitz in his faculty profile.