The record
Korchevskiy & Wylie, 'Particles, fragments, fibers: what IARC missed in its assessment of talc mineralogy (Authors' reply)' (Crit Rev Toxicol 2026, PMID 41920094), is the authors' reply defending their critique of the IARC re-classification on mineralogical grounds.
Claim scope
That the critics maintain, in a published reply, that IARC's mineralogical assessment of talc was deficient — extending the fiber-vs-fragment dispute into the IARC context.
What this source does not establish
Does NOT establish that IARC is wrong. These are critical commentaries and letters, not cohort studies; none supplies a new quantitative risk measure. Several are Critical Reviews in Toxicology papers of the kind commonly authored by consultants engaged in litigation — funding and competing-interest statements were not verified and must be flagged before publication.
Limitations
Represent both directions. On the other side of the same dispute: PMID 38995135 (Epidemiol Prev 2024) systematically reviewed the post-2006 epidemiology of asbestos-free talc. Do NOT present the critics as the consensus, and do NOT suppress them. Competing interests unverified — flag before publication. Pairs with the comment at PMID 41919990 (tev-regulatory-framework-25).
Source
Pmid — 41920094