Harvard Doctor Estimates Talcum Linked To 10,000 Cancer Cases Annually
A Harvard epidemiologist claims that his studies have demonstrated that talcum powder may lead to as many as 10,000 cases of ovarian cancer each year.
Monday, October 12, 2015 - A Harvard doctor who has been studying the connection between talcum powder and ovarian cancer claims that talc may be a contributing factor to as many as 10,000 women's contraction of ovarian cancer each year. The doctor, Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Daniel Cramer, claims that the connection he has discovered in his talcum powder research demonstrates that the amount of women whose ovarian cancer was connected to their regular use of talcum powder products could very well reach into 5-figures annually.
The research that Dr. Cramer did in relation to ovarian cancer is connected to a woman from Sioux Falls South Dakota named Deane Berg, a woman who contracted ovarian cancer and is currently suing talcum powder manufacturer Johnson & Johnson for the alleged role their talcum powder products played in the development of her disease. Dr. Cramer, along with two additional doctors, studied cancerous tissue taken from Berg with an electron microscope and came to the conclusion that her use of talcum powder products had led to the development of her ovarian cancer.
Dr. Cramer not only helped make this diagnosis, but based on the talcum powder research he conducted, claimed that more than 10,000 could also be suffering from ovarian cancer stemming from talcum powder use. Dr. Cramer has studied the link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer for more than 30 years and his research will likely be used in many of the more than 700 talcum powder lawsuits currently pending around the country. Attorneys for plaintiffs in the lawsuits have been gathering talcum research such as the doctors studies and statements to rebuff Johnson & Johnson's claims that no connection between talcum powder and ovarian cancer exist.
The hundreds of lawsuits around the country claim that talcum powder manufacturer failed to warn customers of a possible link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer, ignoring multiple studies that have established varying degrees of correlation between the two. The plaintiffs claim that Johnson & Johnson, as well as Imerys Talc America Inc and Walgreens in select cases, should have known of the talcum powder research being conducted by universities and medical journals that in many cases found a connection between talcum powder and ovarian cancer.
Many of the studies have found that talc particles from products used regularly by women, namely Johnson & Johnson's Shower to Shower and Baby Powder products, can travel up a woman's vaginal tract and become lodged in their ovaries. This process is the one that has been identified in these studies has led to the development of ovarian cancer, and the possibility of this process has made plaintiffs claim that they were put at an increased risk for contracting ovarian cancer and were never warned by the defendants.
The more than 700 talcum powder lawsuits come from across the nation, and two major clusters exist in New Jersey and in St. Louis. The New Jersey lawsuits recently filed to be consolidated into multicounty litigation and are expected to be transferred in the near future. The St. Louis lawsuits are filed in the Missouri State Court and are nearing the trial phase of the litigative process. More than 150 talcum powder lawsuits exist in these two jurisdictions.
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