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On 14 August 2015, the blog Healthy Food House published an article titled Johnson & Johnson Admits: Our Baby Products Contain Cancer-Causing Formaldehyde, whose text proclaimed: Actually, the real question about removing formaldehyde from their shampoo products had been addressed by Johnson & Johnson nearly two years earlier, as noted in a 17 January 2014 New York Times article titled The 'No More Tears' Shampoo, Now with No Formaldehyde: The push for removing formaldehyde to which the Times referred was not a recent occurrence: it had occurred as early as 2012, according to a Scientific American article. Moreover, Johnson & Johnson expressed at the time that the reason behind their reformulation was entirely rooted in implicitly baseless consumer fears: A Slate piece on chemophobia titled No More Formaldehyde Baby Shampoo: How Chemophobia Made Johnson & Johnson Reformulate Its Product examined how social media users spread outsized fears about common and non-harmful ingredients, including formaldehyde, in consumer products The article also noted that formaldehyde occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables, and that any link between formaldehyde and cancer hinged on exposure that included inhalation and involved both long-term and large-quantity usage: Finally, a larger point of diminishing returns exists when it comes to chemicals (primarily of the preservative type) and consumer safety. Personal care products formulated without the use of common preservatives are not without attendant health risks of their own, as grooming formulations of that type are more susceptible to becoming compromised (such as by the growth of mold) in the absence of preservatives. So while it's true Johnson & Johnson reformulated its products due to growing consumer chemophobia, the decision was driven by a marketing initiative and not a proven health safety issue. Moreover, the reformulations were announced in 2012 and completed in late 2013; they are not at all a recent occurrence.
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