anyone using talc these days

Does talcum powder cause cancer?
When talking about whether or not talcum powder is linked to cancer, it is important to distinguish between talc that contains asbestos and talc that is asbestos-free. Talc that has asbestos is generally accepted as being able to cause cancer if it is inhaled. This type of talc is not used in modern consumer products. The evidence about asbestos-free talc, which is still widely used, is less clear.

Researchers use 2 main types of studies to try to determine if a substance or exposure causes cancer.

One type of study looks at cancer rates in different groups of people. Such a study might compare the cancer rate in a group exposed to a substance versus the rate in a group not exposed to it, or compare it to what the expected cancer rate would be in the general population. But studies of people can sometimes be hard to interpret, because there may be other factors affecting the results that are hard to account for.

In studies in lab animals, other factors are easier to control for, but it's not always clear if the results in animals would be the same in humans.

In most cases neither type of study provides definitive evidence on its own, so researchers usually look at both human and lab-based studies.