$417m award in lawsuit linking powder to cancer
Woman claims in lawsuit talc in Johnson baby powder causes ovarian cancer
A Los Angeles jury on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay a record $417 million to a hospitalised woman who claimed in a lawsuit that the talc in the company’s iconic baby powder causes ovarian cancer when applied regularly for feminine hygiene.
The verdict in the lawsuit brought by the California woman, Eva Echeverria, marks the largest sum awarded in a series of talcum powder lawsuit verdicts against Johnson & Johnson in courts around the U.S.
Ms Echeverria alleged Johnson & Johnson failed to adequately warn consumers about talcum powder’s
potential cancer risks. She used the company’s baby powder on a daily basis beginning in the 1950s until 2016 and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007.
Mr Echeverria developed ovarian cancer as a “proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder”, she said in her lawsuit. Her attorney Mark Robinson said, “Mrs. Echeverria is dying from this ovarian cancer and she said to me all she wanted to do was to help the other women throughout the whole country who have ovarian cancer for using Johnson & Johnson for 20 and 30 years.”
The jury’s award included $68 million in compensatory damages and $340 million in punitive damages, Mr Robinson said.
Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in a statement that the company will appeal the jury’s decision. The verdict came after a St. Louis, Missouri, jury in May awarded $110.5 million to a Virginia woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012. She had blamed her illness on her use of the company’s talcum powder-containing products for more than 40 years. AP