Is Talc ok to eat?
I am not a chemist, but I did work for 15 years for a company that took an aggressive stance to elimminate asbestos from its products because of a proactive stance in anticipation of OSHA and EPA regulations. None of these products were for human consumption, but we learned a lot about the relative risks about hydrous magnesium silicates; the fibrous version of this mineral is commonly known as asbestos. The platelet version is commonly known as mica, and the expanded (popped like popcorn) version of mica was vermiculite, which has largely disappeared from the market because of the concern that some percentage of mica included asbestos. Breathing talc can be considered a risk, but rating it as a risk versus the amount of other potential carcinogens present in the air in any urban environment renders the amount present in a roll or bottle of antacids extremely low. Here’s an example–we used bags of asbestos in the manufacture of gasketinng materials–the closed bags were similar to the
