Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder Lawsuits
The first Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder lawsuit was filed in 2008 by Deane Berg, a woman in her 50s who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2006. She used baby powder for about 30 years as part of her personal feminine hygiene routine.
During Berg’s case, Dr. Daniel Cramer testified as an expert witness and suggested that talcum powder use has been the cause of a number of ovarian cancer diagnoses throughout the years. Dr. Cramer was the lead author of one of the most widely-cited baby powder cancer studies, Presence of Talc in Pelvic Lymph Nodes of a Woman With Ovarian Cancer and Long-Term Genital Exposure to Cosmetic Talc (2007). As the trial continued, a Johnson & Johnson attorney admitted at one point that the company was aware of the link between ovarian cancer and talcum powder, but viewed the potential health risk as insignificant and decided it wasn’t necessary to warn consumers of the potential danger.
The South Dakota jury ruled in Berg’s favor, finding that Johnson & Johnson failed to warn consumers about the link between feminine hygiene use of talcum powder and an increased risk of ovarian cancer. As a result of Berg’s successful talcum powder lawsuit, many women across the United States are hopeful that they too can receive the justice and compensation they deserve.
$72 Million Awarded in Baby Powder Cancer Lawsuit
In February 2016, a jury in St. Louis, Missouri awarded $72 million to the family of Jackie Fox, who died of ovarian cancer in 2014 after using baby powder as feminine hygiene product for decades. Of the total awarded, $62 million were punitive damages.
During the Fox trial, Roberta Ness served as an expert witness. Ness, who was formerly dean of the University of Texas School of Public Health and president of the American Epidemiological Society, argued that the data linking hormone therapy to breast cancer is statistically smaller than the data linking talcum powder to ovarian cancer. And while hormone therapy is now considered to be a serious risk, feminine hygiene use of talcum powder is still unrecognized as a health risk.
$55 Million Awarded in Baby Powder Cancer Lawsuit
In May 2016, another jury in St. Louis, Missouri awarded $55 million to Gloria Ristesund, who used Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder for over 35 years before she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2011. The ruling was Johnson & Johnson’s second court loss related to talcum powder and ovarian cancer in less than three months.
According to the baby powder cancer lawsuit, internal Johnson & Johnson documents showed that the company knew of studies affirming the link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer, but continued to market the use of baby powder for feminine hygiene as safe.
$4.69 Billion Awarded to Multiple Plaintiffs in J&J Baby Powder Cancer Case
In July 2018, a jury in St. Louis, Missouri issued a landmark $4.69 billion verdict for the plaintiffs, who include 22 women and their families. The women allege their ovarian cancer was caused by J&J talcum powder products contaminated with asbestos. Discovery documents presented during the trial show that J&J knew for decades about the talcum powder asbestos contamination but fought to keep the information from going public.
Johnson & Johnson asked the judge who presided over the St. Louis case to toss the jury verdict. In an order, Judge Rex Burlison wrote that “substantial evidence was adduced at trial of particularly reprehensible conduct” by J&J, including evidence that the company “knew of the presence of asbestos in products that they knowingly targeted for sale to mothers and babies, knew of the damage their products caused, and misrepresented the safety of these products for decades.”
Wisner Baum Filing Individual Baby Powder Lawsuits
Our personal injury attorneys understand that many of you have suffered devastating physical, emotional and financial losses due to your cancer diagnosis. In an effort to ensure that you receive the personal attention you deserve, our firm is exclusively filing individual baby powder lawsuits. We feel that this course of action will maximize compensation for our clients and send a clear message to baby powder manufacturers, like Johnson & Johnson, that failing to inform consumers about the dangers of these products will not be tolerated.
“In conclusion, our large pooled analysis of case-control studies shows a small-to-moderate (20-30 %) increased risk of ovarian cancer with genital-powder use, most clearly pertaining to non-mutinous epithelial ovarian tumors. More work is needed to understand how genital powders may exert a carcinogenic effect, and which constituents (e.g. talc) may be involved.”
– Genital Powder Use and Risk of Ovarian Cancer: A Pooled Analysis of 8,525 Cases and 9,859 Controls, 2013
How Do I File an Ovarian Cancer Talcum Powder Lawsuit?
Our firm is currently reviewing and accepting claims from women who developed ovarian cancer after using Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder and other talc products for feminine hygiene. We are also prepared to file wrongful death lawsuits on behalf of family members who have lost a wife or a mother to ovarian cancer stemming from talc powder use.
Wisner Baum has successfully handled over 20,000 cases, securing over $4 billion in verdicts and settlements for our clients. With decades of experience handling personal injury and wrongful death cases, our firm has developed a reputation for holding Fortune 500 companies accountable, improving product safety, influencing public policy and raising public awareness on the dangers of consumer products.
Contact a Los Angeles talcum powder attorney at Wisner Baum. To learn more about filing a talcum powder lawsuit, give us a call at (855) 948-5098 today.
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