A California jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $40 million in compensation to two women who claim the company’s talcum powder caused their ovarian cancer. The company said it would appeal the decision.
Jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that Monica Kent was entitled to $18 million and Deborah Schultz and her husband were entitled to $22 million, following arguments that Johnson & Johnson knew for years that its talc products were dangerous but failed to warn consumers.
Erik Haas, vice president of global litigation at Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement that the company plans to “immediately appeal this decision and hopes to prevail, as we often do with outlier adverse verdicts.”
In May 2020, Johnson & Johnson announced that it would stop selling Johnson’s baby powder in the United States and Canada, saying the move was part of a broad reassessment of its product portfolio amid the pandemic.
But the suspension follows a series of disputes involving product safety.
In the lawsuits, consumers allege that the company’s talc products were contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen.
J&J said in 2019 that in its testing it found no carcinogens in its talcs. However, tests conducted by the United States federal health agency (the Food and Drug Administration) revealed the presence of traces of asbestos in the brand’s products.
In late March of this year, a federal bankruptcy judge in Houston rejected Johnson & Johnson’s request to approve a $9 billion settlement as tens of thousands of people sued the company over allegations that the products caused cancer.
According to reporting from the New York Times, more than 90,000 claims against Johnson & Johnson and other parties are pending, far more than the courts can handle individually.
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