Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $40m to women who said talc to blame for cancer

"The jury in Los Angeles superior court awarded $18m to Monica Kent and $22m to Deborah Schultz and her husband after finding that Johnson & Johnson knew for years its talc-based products were dangerous but failed to warn consumers. Erik Haas, Johnson & Johnson's worldwide vice-president of litigation, said in a statement the company plans to immediately appeal this verdict and expect to prevail as we typically do with aberrant adverse verdicts."

"Kent was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2014, according to court records. Schultz was diagnosed in 2018. Both women are California residents who say they used J&J's baby powder after bathing for 40 years. Their treatments for ovarian cancer have involved major surgeries and dozens of rounds of chemotherapy, they testified at the trial."

"In closing arguments that Reuters viewed on Courtroom View Network, Andy Birchfield, an attorney for the women, told the jury that Johnson & Johnson knew as far back as the 1960s that its product could cause cancer. Absolutely they knew, they knew and they were doing everything they could to hide it, to bury the truth about the dangers, Birchfield said. Allison Brown, an attorney for Johnson & Johnson, said the only people to tell Kent and Schultz that their cancers were caused by talc were their lawyers, as the alleged connection isn't backed by any major US health authority and there is no study that shows talc can migrate from the outside of the body to the reproductive organs."

A California jury awarded $40 million to two women after finding Johnson & Johnson knew its talc-based baby powder was dangerous but failed to warn consumers. The jury awarded $18m to Monica Kent and $22m to Deborah Schultz and her husband. Erik Haas said the company plans to immediately appeal and expects to prevail. Kent was diagnosed in 2014 and Schultz in 2018; both say they used J&J's baby powder after bathing for 40 years. Their ovarian cancer treatments included major surgeries and dozens of rounds of chemotherapy. Attorneys disputed whether scientific evidence links talc to ovarian cancer. J&J faces more than 67,000 related lawsuits.

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