Particles, fragments, fibers: what IARC missed in its assessment of talc mineralogy. (Authors’ reply to Comment on [“The IARC re-classification of talc carcinogenicity: a move in the wrong direction?”])

This short communication is a response to the Letter to the Editor submitted by Alessandro Gualtieri (2026, forthcoming) entitled-Comments on the article "The IARC re-classification of talc carcinogenicity: a move in the wrong direction?" by A.A. Korchevskiy and A.G. Wylie (Crit Rev Toxicol. 55(9):867-889). The response argues that the definitions of the terms "asbestos", "asbestiform", and "fibrous" in the IARC Monograph, Volume 136 on talc do not consider recent advances in mineralogical science and may lead to contradictions in interpreting information for toxicological assessment.