Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
£323m payout over talc cancer claim
A JURY in Los Angeles has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million (£323 million) to a woman who claimed in a lawsuit that the talc in its baby powder causes ovarian cancer when applied regularly for feminine hygiene.
The lawsuit was brought by a California woman, Eva Echeverria, who alleged Johnson & Johnson failed to adequately warn consumers about the potential cancer risks of talcum powder.
Mrs Echeverria developed ovarian cancer as a “proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder”, she said in her lawsuit.
Her lawyer, Mark Robinson, said his client hoped the verdict would lead Johnson & Johnson to include additional warnings on its products.
“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 from using Johnson & Johnson for 20 and 30 years,” Mr Robinson said. “She really didn’t want sympathy,” he added.
“She just wanted to get a message out to help these other women.”
Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in a statement that the company will appeal against the jury’s decision.
She said while the company sympathises with those impacted by ovarian cancer, she said science supports the safety of its baby powder.
A jury in St Louis, Missouri, in May awarded $110.5m (£85.6m) to a Virginia woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012.
She had blamed her illness on her use for more than 40 years of the company’s talcum powder-containing products.
Besides that case, three other jury trials in St Louis reached similar outcomes last year.
Ms Goodrich said the company is preparing for additional trials in the US and will continue to defend the product’s safety.