The Nation - News from Dec. 26, 1985

Pediatricians warned that baby powder is dangerous for infants and may even cause death by suffocation if inhaled by tots with tracheotomy tubes. “There’s no reason for parents to use it at all,” said Dr. William H. Cotton in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine. “It just makes babies smell good for a short while but can present a problem for any infant.” Representatives of Johnson & Johnson, the nation’s largest manufacturer of baby powder, countered that the “product is safe when used as it is intended.”