Johnson & Johnson was once a household name and the world’s highest-paid drug company, but its reputation has fallen as a result of recent lawsuits alleging that its baby powder causes ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.
Johnson and Johnson has been hit with hundreds of lawsuits claiming the firm was negligent, colluded, deceived, and failed to warn customers of the unsafe side effects of using its baby powder.
News outlets have estimated these talcum powder-related lawsuits could cost the company in the region of $5 billion to $10 billion.
In October 2019, Johnson & Johnson recalled 33,000 baby powder bottles after the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discovered asbestos, a known carcinogen, in one of them.
Talcum Powder Lawsuit
The talcum powder claims are based on the fact that although Johnson & Johnson was aware that talc was contaminated with asbestos fibers, it did not inform customers about the danger.
Johnson & Johnson talcum powder has been connected to ovarian and mesothelioma for four decades, according to several talcum powder litigation claims.
The first talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuit filed against Johnson & Johnson in a federal court was filed in 2013. In the wake of the suit, a lawyer for Johnson & Johnson stated that executives had been aware of the link between baby powder and ovarian cancer for many years.
Despite these findings, Johnson & Johnson deemed the risk of ovarian cancer and mesothelioma insufficient; therefore, they failed to put a warning label on their baby powder about the associations between talc and cancer.
What is baby powder made of?
The main ingredient used in baby powder is talc, which is the softest mineral on earth. It is used in baby powder to absorb odors and moisture. The powdery texture of talc makes it highly absorbent. Unfortunately, talc oftentimes has a toxic neighbor that develops alongside it in rock formations: asbestos.
How is talcum powder toxic?
Asbestos and talc are two minerals that naturally combine together. Talc and asbestos are two minerals with a similar makeup that form together naturally. When talc and asbestos are extracted at the same time, cross-contamination occurs.
Asbestos exposure can lead to the development of asbestos-related malignancies such as mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis.
Link Between Talcum Powder and Cancer
The relationship between talcum powder and ovarian cancer has been the subject of over 40 medical research papers. The first was published in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1971, which showed that talc particles had been found in 75 percent of ovarian cancer and cervical tumors removed from 13 different women.
Johnson & Johnson has been accused of running a campaign to undercut studies like this one. Let’s explore the veracity of this.
Johnson & Johnson’s Misdoings with Talcum Powder Exposed to Asbestos
In 2018, Reuters released a long investigation into Johnson & Johnson’s misconduct regarding their talcum powder products. It appears that as early as the 1950s, Johnson and Johnson was aware of asbestos contamination in their baby powder.
Johnson & Johnson engaged in a series of deliberate actions to minimize concerns about the potential health risks of utilizing their talc-based goods. They withheld lab reports from the FDA, claiming that there were no asbestos fibers in Johnson and Johnson baby powder, to simplify FDAs testing criteria.
An internal 1975 document detailed how the company planned to counteract or keep back information that questioned the health safety of talcum powder.
For decades the company insisted that their company’s baby powder was safe and asbestos-free, stating in a press release that it employs a “rigorous testing standard” to ensure safety.
FDA Discovers Asbestos inside Talcum Powder
The recall was prompted by the FDA’s detection of trace amounts of chrysotile asbestos in a bottle of baby powder bought on an internet retailer. The authorities subsequently released a press release stating that they had discovered traces of asbestos in the sample bottles of baby powder.
As of May 2020, Johnson & Johnson is facing more than 17,000 federal and state claims that it failed to disclose that Johnston’s Baby Powder and Shower-to-Shower talc-based products can cause ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.
