Health care producer Johnson & Johnson told a press conference Sunday its baby-care products were up to quality standards, and "to win customers' trust is more important than the sales volume."

The general manager of Johnson & Johnson (China), Wang Meiying, made the remarks following the top quality watchdog's test report on Friday which said the products were "healthy and safe."

On March 12, a non-profit U.S. organization, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, issued test results on 48 Johnson & Johnson's baby products, including body wash, shampoo and soaps, which showed 23 of which contained potential carcinogens.

Those contaminated products were alleged to contain formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane. The chemicals were said to be found in top brands such as Johnson & Johnson, Mustela and Procter & Gamble.

The report raised concerns over the safety of Johnson & Johnson's baby products. Some Chinese supermarkets had pulled some of the products from their shelves.

A woman in the western Chengdu City, Sichuan Province's capital, claimed that her 1-year-old baby daughter got a rash after exposure to Johnson & Johnson's Baby Bedtime Oil.

The claim has drawn a wide attention nationwide. But the company explained that the rash was "similar to an allergy and resulted from the difference between individual constitutions but not a quality problem."

Nonetheless, Johnson & Johnson paid for the medicine and transportation fee worth 631.81 yuan (92.5 U.S. dollars).

Johnson & Johnson's spokesperson Lu Jing said at the press conference that the company had "received only 1.17 complaints related to allergy out of 1 million products," and she said the figure applied to those appeared to be allergy after buying the products but not caused by the products.

"So far, there is no conclusion suggests Johnson & Johnson's products would cause any allergy," Johnson & Johnson's market research center director Wu Dong said.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine on Friday released test results on 31 batches of 26Johnson & Johnson's baby products, which showed only 1 batch contained a small amount -- 3.27 ppm -- of 1,4-dioxane.

"Ppm is a unit of concentration which represents one out of a million. The amount is like three drops of water in a whole swimming pool," Wu said.

"The 1,4-dioxane is widely seen in our daily goods, such as tomatoes, fresh shrimp and coffee. Shrimp contain 20 to 30 ppm of such element," he said.

He emphasized the element found was only a byproduct during processing. "It is like adding oil, salt when cooking cabbage. Some byproducts could be formed during cooking," he said.

According to the Johnson & Johnson's previous statement, "the trace levels of certain compounds found by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics can result from processes that make our products gentle for babies and safe from bacteria growth."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said earlier in a statement that the levels of chemical found in cosmetics it monitored would not present a hazard to consumers.

Formaldehyde, a preservative commonly found in construction materials, can cause breathing problems and is classified as a carcinogen.

A dermatologist from the Peking University People's Hospital, Cai Lin, said elements that may cause allergies usually come from essences, pigments and preservatives.

She suggested consumers avoiding products with strong scents, colors or long shelf time.

Source:Xinhua