By Leslie Ann Aquino To protect consumers from possible asbestos contamination, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday were urged by the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP) to conduct a product evaluation test on Johnson and Johnson (J&J) baby powder in the country. The workers organization issued the call following the recall last week of 33,000 bottles in the United States after its food and drug authorities found a type of asbestos in a sample of a product. The United States Food and Drug Administration announced on October 18 that it has found the deadly chrysotile asbestos fibers in one batch of the product and advised consumers to stop using Johnson and Johnson baby powder Lot # 22318RB. The discovery prompted the personal care company to voluntarily recall for the first time a batch of the product for the first time amid thousands of lawsuits over a variety of products including the talc baby powder alleged to contain asbestos. "We are urging them to conduct product evaluation test to assure the quality and safety of the product poses to the health of consumers,” said Gerard Seno, National Executive Vice President of ALU-TUCP, in a statement. He said the FDA authority should proactively take steps to mitigate the undue anxiety felt by consumers caused by this serious discovery of asbestos contamination in a baby product commonly used by so many Filipinos. "The FDA must guarantee to all of us the safety, purity and efficacy of this product in order to protect the health and welfare of the general public. It is better for FDA to err on the side of caution than to realize too late that many people’s health and safety have already been compromised simply because they didn’t check the product,” Seno said. In the Philippines, blue and brown asbestos is banned. However, white or chrysotile asbestos is regulated and used on a few existing products by Chemical Control Order 02 series of 2000 by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The ALU-TUCP through TUCP Party-List Rep. Raymond Mendoza’s House Bill 2636 is pushing to ban the import, manufacture, use, process, distribution of asbestos for commercial purposes.