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Comment by dekalbcountyman | Hacker News Reader

so stop putting baby powder on my nuts during the summer? :(

Baby powder is fine, given that I don't know that one can even buy talc powder anymore. It's all made with corn starch now. Go right ahead and bread those nuts (verifying that it's non-talc breading, just to be safe).

Thank you, the difference between talc and baby powder wasn’t obvious for me (especially as a non-native). Quoting Google:

“Talc is a clay mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate with the chemical formula Mg3Si4O10(OH)2.”

It's not all corn starch now.

Talc is still big business.

Talc is still very much commonplace. What is actually somewhat hard to find is pure talc with no fragrance at all. Not everyone wants to smell like baby powder.

Thanks for a different POV. Here in Redmond, WA I’m either not looking (which is quite possible), or corn starch dominates the shelves.

I've no doubt it varies considerably by store. Maybe by area, as well, though I'm not all that far from you, so that probably isn't a big factor.

To get actual unscented pure talc I had to find it on Amazon.

Go right ahead. The link between talc and any kind of harm is limited (and it's asbestos contamination that is the actual culprit, talc itself is fine), and what evidence there is only links to ovarian cancer. Given how many decades people have been powdering their nether regions with talc, I'd find something else to worry about.

Gold Bond is where it’s at my summer swamp brother.

If you want to avoid ovarian cancer I would!

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