A New York Woman Wins At Least $25 Million For Her Baby Powder Cancer

Johnson & Johnson is having difficulty refuting expert witnesses and internal company memos that show they knew their product contained asbestos over 30 years ago

Friday, May 24, 2019 - Johnson & Johnson lost yet another trial where a plaintiff alleged that Johnson's Baby Powder caused their mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs. The company is ordered to pay a New York woman at least $25 million dollars as compensatory damages and there will be further consideration given as to the amount of additional punitive damages to be levied if any. Punitive damages usually run around 10 times compensatory which would put the total damage amount at $275 million and in line with previous baby powder trials jury awards. Johnson & Johnson lost a case recently to 22 women that claimed Johnson's Baby Powder caused their ovarian cancer and was forced to pay them $4.79 billion or around $220 million each. Johnson & Johnson is appealing the case it feels should have been divided up into 22 separate trials given the differences each plaintiff brought to the case. Talcum powder ovarian cancer attorneys helping families harmed by talcum powder cancer and offer a free consultation before filing a claim.

The plaintiff, 66-year old Donna Olson has mesothelioma, cancer that affects the lining of the lungs and is the signature disease of asbestos. Even though asbestos fibers can be microscopically small they are capable of lacerated lung tissue causing irritation and inelastic scar tissue to develop, gradually decreasing the patient's ability to breath and eventually suffocating them to death. The New York plaintiff was able to present the expert witness testimony of Dr. William Longo who repeated his claims to have found asbestos in Johnson's Baby Powder samples that he tested. Dr. Longo testified that his method of testing using liquid separation was the key to finding the cancer-causing substance. The liquid separation (LS) method can be 10 times as sensitive and find much smaller concentrations of asbestos than the methods used by Johnson & Johnson over the years. Over 30 years ago the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was considering a change to the LS method prompting Johnson & Johnson to issue a memo on the subject that has now been revealed in court.

According to The Northern California Record, a plaintiff in the previous baby powder asbestos trial attorney cited an internal JNJ memo that called the use of the liquid separation "a disturbing proposal." The memo read: "It looks like the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is getting into separation and isolation methods, which will mean new concentration procedures open up new problems with asbestos and talc minerals."

A South Carolina jury ruled in favor of Johnson & Johnson in a trial that ran concurrent to the New York trial, declaring that there was insufficient evidence to determine that Johnson's Baby Powder caused the plaintiff Beth-Anne Johnson's mesothelioma. Johnson's unique form of mesothelioma was shown to be naturally occurring and there was no presence of asbestos currently found in her lungs.

There is thought to be around 15,000 cases pending against Johnson's talcum powder products similar to the trials that have already taken place.

Information provided by TalcumPowderCancerLawsuit.com, a website devoted to providing news about talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits, as well as medical research and findings.