A POWDER KEG
J&J stock tanks on talcum scare
Johnson & Johnson’s stock had its worst day in 16 years after an explosive report accused the consumer-products giant of lying for decades about trace amounts of cancercausing asbestos in its namesake baby powder.
J&J had evidence from lab tests dating as early as 1971 that its talcum powder contained asbestos — and lied about the fact for years as it faced lawsuit after lawsuit from sick plaintiffs, according to a report by Reuters published on Friday.
The report, which cited internal and confidential corporate documents, also claimed New Brunswick, NJ-based J&J had commissioned and paid for studies conducted on its Baby Powder franchise and hired a ghostwriter to redraft the article that presented the findings in a journal.
In response, J&J dismissed the article as a rehash of an “absurd conspiracy theory” that was “one-sided, false and inflammatory.”
“Thousands of independent tests by regulators and the world’s leading labs prove our baby powder has never contained asbestos,” a J&J spokesman said.
The company also said Baby Powder was asbestos-free and added it will continue to defend the safety of its product, which has never been recalled from store shelves.
On Friday, its stock sank 10 percent, to $133.
According to the Reuters report, J&J’s own lab tests showed that the company’s talc sometimes tested positive for small amounts of asbestos — in some cases enough to cause serious health problems in consumers. The company’s executives discussed the problem with- out disclosing it to regulators or the public, according to the report.
The company faces more than 11,000 claims against it and the prospect of many more lawsuits in the foreseeable future, say lawyers representing plaintiffs in these cases.
Thousands of customers have sued the company over the past several years after they were diagnosed with ovarian cancer and mesothelioma — a form of lung cancer — with some winning enormous jury verdicts, including a $4.69 billion award in St. Louis this summer involving 22 women and their families.
Johnson & Johnson is appealing that case and a number of others elsewhere, insisting that its product is safe to use.
“The vast majority of plaintiffs were exposed to baby powder in childhood as they were powdered as babies,” Ted Meadows, a Montgomery, Ala.-based attorney with Beasley Allen who has tried six cases against Johnson & Johnson, told The Post. “And their mothers taught them to use powder as teenagers.”
Meadows won five of the six cases — which are being appealed by Johnson & Johnson — including a $417 million award in Los Angeles and a $110 million award in St. Louis last year.