Contaminated Talcum Powder Linked to Cancers
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.
Johnson & Johnson were aware of cancer link with Talcum baby powder
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.