J&J hit with bill for $4.7 billion in damages over talcum powder cancer link

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has lost another high-profile legal case over claims that the company’s talcum powder is carcinogenic. On 12 July, a jury in Missouri ordered J&J to pay nearly $4.7 billion (£3.6 billion) in damages to 22 ovarian cancer patients and their families. The company has had mixed results countering more than 9000 lawsuits from ovarian cancer patients over its baby powder, but this case is the first to focus on asbestos in the product.

‘The jury saw the very first evidence that J&J has been failing to tell the authorities that their talc has been riddled with asbestos for the last five decades,’ says Mark Lanier, the attorney for the 22 women who sued the company. He adds that medical experts testified during the Missouri trial that microscopic asbestos fibres enter the body when talcum powder is inhaled or applied to the genital area, and that fibres and talcum powder particles were found in the ovarian tissues of many of the women.