Talcum Powder Legal News Articles & Interviews

Washington, DC Twenty women who sued Johnson and Johnson, claiming its baby powder was key in their ovarian cancers, stuck to their guns: the U.S. Supreme Court won’t overturn a $2.1 billion against J&J, which was cut from a 2018 Missouri Court verdict of $4.7 billion. These women persevered through an exhaustive and harrowing court battle including the company’s last ditch appeal in March. But nine women have died from ovarian cancer since the trial began six years ago.

St. Louis, MO A panel of three judges with the Missouri Appeals Court has found Johnson & Johnson “Outrageous because of Evil Motive or Reckless Indifference” and upheld an award of over $2 billion in damages: $500 million in compensatory damages, plus another $1.62 billion in punitive damages. This group of 22 ovarian cancer victims-- all of whom developed ovarian cancer from J&J’s baby powder-- has now received the sixth largest award in U.S. legal history. 

Washington, DC For the first time ever, Johnson & Johnson recalled its baby powder (specifically single lot #22318RB, comprising 33,000 bottles) after the FDA announced trace levels of asbestos were found—purchased from an online retailer. J&J said it is working with the FDA to determine whether the product tested is authentic, counterfeit, or whether cross-contamination of the sample caused a false positive. And it also shows how the FDA lacks the ability to test consumer talc products.

Torrance, CA: To date, Johnson and Johnson has lost 14 talcum powder lawsuits (and is appealing most of those), has won seven cases, and five mesothelioma cases have resulted in hung juries and mistrials. The pharma giant is still facing over 14,000 lawsuits alleging its baby powder contained asbestos talc and caused cancer. Two California juries in October, however, rejected allegations that J&J’s talc contained asbestos and caused mesothelioma.

New JerseyJohnson & Johnson struck another loss in its asbestos talc trial September 11, 2019, and the pharma giant has been ordered to pay $37.3 to four plaintiffs – after the defendants’ attorney called the plaintiffs’ attorney “sinister”, according to Courtroom View Network. That seemed to be enough for the judge, the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak.

New Brunswick, NJ: Johnson & Johnson presented scientific literature during the latest asbestos talc trial on August 9 indicating a “weak link” between peritoneal mesothelioma and asbestos exposure, challenging testimony of pathologist John Maddox and the four plaintiffs who have been diagnosed with this form of cancer. All four were exposed to asbestos in J&J baby powder when they were babies, which allegedly caused their terminal cancer. Babies are even more susceptible to the risks of asbestos exposure because their cells are still developing and because they breathe faster, increasing the amount of asbestos they might breathe in, plaintiff’s attorney Moshe Maimon told the jury.

New York, NY: A Johnson & Johnson shareholder in February 2018 filed a securities class action claiming that J&J has known its talcum powder contains asbestos fibers and that exposure to J&J’s talc can cause mesothelioma and ovarian cancer. Shareholders are now urging a federal judge to move forward with the lawsuit because they purportedly have evidence showing that the company has known since the 1970s about the dangers of its talc and chose testing methods that couldn’t detect the cancer-causing asbestos fibers.


J&J argues that its shareholders are attempting to rehash decades-old allegations, but the proposed class said that the company failed to actually respond to most of the alleged misstatements in that filing. According to Law360, “The [complaint] sets forth each alleged misrepresentation and omission, which of the defendants made each statement, the date of each statement and the reasons each statement was false and misleading,” the investors said. “Nothing more is required. Notably, defendants fail to challenge many of the misstatements, conceding their falsity.”


Shareholder Frank Hall filed the putative class action in New Jersey federal court claiming that J&J harmed its stockholders by concealing the truth underlying lawsuits and articles contending that J&J’s talcum powder products contain asbestos. According to the complaint, J&J knew for decades that its talc products, namely Johnson’s Baby Powder, contain asbestos fibers and that exposure to J&J’s talc can cause mesothelioma and ovarian cancer. Also, J&J’s revenues from sales of these products were unsustainable due to the dangerous and harmful nature of its talc products. And In the 1990s, J&J outlined a plan to hike flagging sales of its powder “by targeting” black and Hispanic women, according to a company memorandum made public in recent lawsuits against J&J.


Further, by not disclosing this danger, J&J kept its stock price artificially high and harmed shareholders who saw prices drop by more than 5 percent when the media reported the information. The lawsuit cites falls in shares that damaged investors from the following news:


1. On September 21, 2017, Bloomberg published an article titled, “Johnson &Johnson alerted to risk of asbestos in talc in '70s, files show,” stating “documents indicate that J&J has known for decades that its talc products include asbestos fibers and that the exposure to those fibers can cause ovarian cancer.” Shares of J&J fell $2.28 per share over five consecutive trading days to close at $129.47 per share on September 28, 2017.


2. On February 5, 2018, CNBC published an article titled, “Johnson & Johnson falls on report that lawsuits could expose potentially damaging documents. Shares of J&J fell $7.29 per share or over 5% from its previous closing price to close at $130.39 per share on February 5, 2018,


3. On February 7, 2018, during aftermarket hours, the Beasley Allen Law Firm issued a press release stating that “[l]awsuits filed by ovarian cancer and mesothelioma victims are revealing never-before-seen documents from Johnson & Johnson and talc supplier, Imerys, that shed light on just how prevalent asbestos and heavy metals are in the talc used in Baby Powder.” The release stated that “[i]nternal Johnson & Johnson documents from 1972 note that asbestos was found in 100 percent of talc samples tested at the time, but this information was never released publicly.” It further stated that J&J stopped funding a project designed to test talc samples for asbestos contamination once a majority of the sample batches were found to be

positive for asbestos.”


This is a federal securities class action on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired the publicly traded securities of J&J between February 22, 2013 and February 7, 2018. The case is Hall v. Johnson & Johnson et al., case number 3:18-cv-01833, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Alameda, CA: Patricia Schmitz, age 61, a mother of two with grandchildren and former school teacher, was diagnosed with mesothelioma last year and her doctors say she has little chance to survive. Her asbestos talc case states that J&J products caused the disease; J&J’s attorneys and expert witness argued her cancer was “spontaneous in nature”. The jury awarded Schmitz $12 million in damages.

South Carolina Donna Olson used J&J talc since she was a young girl, breathing in talc particles from the cloud she made. Teresa Leavitt’s mother used J&J’s baby powder on her as a baby in the 1960s and she continued to use it herself as a teen, powdering her face and hair daily for years. Both women testified in court last week and both women won their asbestos-talc lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson.

Oakland, CA On March 13, a jury in California Superior Court awarded Terry Leavitt and her husband $29.4 million in the first Johnson & Johnson (J&J) talcum powder lawsuit to go to trial in 2019. Ms. Leavitt linked her mesothelioma diagnosis to her use of asbestos-contaminated J&J baby powder and Shower-to-Shower talcum powder. The verdict includes $22 million for pain and suffering, $5 million in compensatory damages, nearly $1.3 million for her medical costs and $1.2 million for lost wages.