Johnson & Johnson Liable for Nearly $1 Billion in Damages for Cancer-Causing Baby Powder

Earlier this month, a jury in Los Angeles, found Johnson & Johnson, Inc. (J&J) was liable for damages in the amount of $966 million dollars to the family of a long-time consumer of its baby talcum powder. The jury concluded that the pharmaceutical giant was liable for its dangerous talcum powder product which caused the victim’s deadly cancer.¹

The family of Mae Moore sued J&J in 2021 after her death from a rare cancer. The family alleged that their talcum powder contained asbestos fibers which led to Moore’s death at the age of 88 from Mesothelioma. While rare, Mesothelioma, caused by exposure to asbestos, is an aggressive cancer that develops in the lining of the heart, lungs and abdomen.² Moore had used the talcum powder for decades before her death.^{3 4}

Jury Awards Family Record Breaking Damages

The family received $950 million in punitive damages and $16 million in compensatory damages. Compensatory damages are considered actual damages designed to compensate the plaintiff for their loss while punitive damages are damages that are awarded on top of compensatory damages and are meant to punish the offending party for their reckless or negligent behavior.⁵

Trey Branham, attorney for Moore’s family stated he is “hopeful that Johnson & Johnson will finally accept responsibility for these senseless deaths.”⁶

Eric Haas, Vice President of Litigation for Johnson & Johnson warned that the company…

will immediately appeal this egregious and unconstitutional verdict that is directly at odds—in result and amount—with the vast majority of other talc cases wherein the Company has prevailed… The plaintiff lawyers in this Moore case based their arguments on ‘junk science’ that never should have been presented to the jury, as it is refuted by decades of studies demonstrating Johnson’s baby powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.⁷

Internal Documents Show the Drug Giant Knew Their Products Contained Asbestos

While J&J has claimed that their talcum powder did not contain asbestos or cause cancer, the product was reformulated in 2020 to include a corn starch base.⁸ In 2023, the company removed their talcum powder from the market altogether. Internal documents produced in court allegedly show that J&J was aware that their talcum products contained asbestos as far back as the early 1970’s.⁹

More than 67,00 plaintiffs have sued the New Jersey based pharmaceutical company claiming that their talcum powder products led to their cancer diagnosis. The majority of the claims allege that the talcum products caused ovarian cancer, but some claims include Mesothelioma. J &J’s response to the massive litigation it faced was to attempt to declare bankruptcy. However, federal courts have prevented that course of action three times already.¹⁰ J& J has spent more than $3 billion defending claims that asbestos in its talcum powder caused cancer in consumers.¹¹

While almost a dozen juries have found that the drug conglomerate’s talcum powder caused cancer and awarded plaintiffs billions of dollars in damages, many of these verdicts have been overturned on appeal.¹²

J&J May Have Deliberately Targeted “Under-Developed Geographical Areas”

J&J’s baby powder was initially placed on the market in1894. The first allegations that the product had safety concerns emerged in the 1950’s and the first lawsuit alleging that the talcum powder led to cancer was brought in 2009.

Historically, J&J marketed their talcum powder to “under-developed geographical areas” focusing on black women as their primary consumers. The drug company used a marketing strategy that relied on distribution networks through community organizations, beauty salons and churches in these geographical areas.

In the 1990’s through early 2000’s, despite knowing their talcum products sometimes contained asbestos, the drug giant focused their radio advertising on six distinct U.S. markets designed to target “curvy Southern women aged 18-49 skewing African-American.” The verdict has represented acknowledgment of this historical discrimination targeting African American women by J&J.¹³

If you would like to receive an e-mail notice of the most recent articles published in The Vaccine Reaction each week, click here.