Jury in baby powder suit awards more than $70M
California woman alleges years of talcum powder use caused her ovarian cancer
ST. LOUIS— A St. Louis jury on Thursday awarded a California woman more than $70 million (U.S.) in her lawsuit alleging that years of using Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder caused her cancer, the latest case raising concerns about the health ramifications of extended talcum powder use.
The jury ruling ended the trial that began Sept. 26 in the case brought by Deborah Giannecchini of Modesto, Calif. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012. The suit accused Johnson & Johnson of “negligent conduct” in making and marketing its baby powder.
“We are pleased the jury did the right thing. They once again reaffirmed the need for Johnson & Johnson to warn the public of the ovarian cancer risk associated with its prod- uct,” Jim Onder, an attorney for the plaintiff, told The Associated Press.
“We deeply sympathize with the women and families impacted by ovarian cancer,” Carol Goodrich, a spokesperson with Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement. “We will appeal today’s verdict because we are guided by the science, which supports the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.”
Earlier this year, two other lawsuits in St. Louis ended in jury verdicts worth a combined $127 million. But two others in New Jersey were thrown out by a judge who said there wasn’t reliable evidence that talc leads to ovarian cancer, an often fatal but relatively rare form of cancer.
About 2,000 women have filed similar suits, and lawyers are reviewing thousands of other potential cases, most generated by ads touting the two big verdicts out of St. Louis — a $72-million award in February to relatives of an Alabama woman who died of ovarian cancer, and a $55million award in May to a South Da- kota survivor of the disease.
Much research has found no link or a weak one between ovarian cancer and using baby powder for feminine hygiene, and most major health groups have declared talc harmless.
But Onder, of the Onder Law Firm, which represented plaintiffs in all three St. Louis cases, cited other research that began connecting talcum powder to ovarian cancer in the 1970s. He said case studies have indicated that women who regularly use talc on their genital area face up to a 40-per-cent higher risk of developing ovarian cancer. Onder has accused Johnson & Johnson of marketing toward overweight women, black and Hispanic women — the very same women most at-risk for ovarian cancer, he said.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies genital use of talc as “possibly carcinogenic.” The National Toxicology Program, made up of parts of several different government agencies, has not fully reviewed talc.