Talcum Powder Lawsuit Claims Reach Back To 1990's

Plaintiffs filing Johnson & Johnson's baby powder cancer lawsuits against the health care giant claim that the company was aware of the connection between ovarian cancer and talcum powder as early as the 1990's.

Saturday, April 30, 2016 - Many of the talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits that have been building in courtrooms around the country claim medical giant Johnson & Johnson was aware of the medical research connecting their talcum powder products and ovarian cancer as early as the 1990's. A number of internal documents recovered by baby powder cancer lawyers representing the plaintiffs revealed internal Johnson & Johnson in which discussions of potential warning labels and product safety took place. More than 1,000 talcum powder lawsuits are currently pending nationwide, with plaintiffs claiming that Johnson & Johnson intentionally refrained from affixing warning labels to their baby powder products after discovering the ovarian cancer link.

One of the main pieces of evidence against Johnson & Johnson in the talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits is a 1997 internal memo from the company in which the company became aware that their baby powder products had been implicated in a number of scientific studies that classified it as a probable carcinogen. The letter came from a former consultant for Johnson & Johnson who informed the company of at least nine studies that had been performed involving baby powder and ovarian cancer. In the letter, the consultant claimed that any Johnson & Johnson representative that denied the scientific connections between baby powder and ovarian cancer would be "denying the obvious in the face of all evidence to the contrary."

These internal documents played a large role in the $72 million award given to the plaintiff in a February 2016 talcum powder cancer lawsuit in St. Louis. The trial was seen as a bellwether for the roughly 1,200 Johnson & Johnson's baby powder lawsuits currently pending around the country, and jurists claimed that the internal documents proved that Johnson & Johnson had been aware of the link between their talcum powder products and ovarian cancer and was negligent in their response to these facts. The jury foreman claimed that these internal documents were one of the main reasons she found in favor of the plaintiff, on par with the medical research presented by the talcum powder cancer lawyers.

In addition to the internal documents, there are currently dozens of published medical studies that link talcum powder to ovarian cancer. Beginning with a 1971 study published in England, most of the baby powder ovarian cancer lawsuits have tapped into the decades of research into talcum powder ovarian cancer connections and claim that there was no way that Johnson & Johnson could have been unaware of this information. Although Johnson & Johnson claims that it has found alternative studies that find no significant link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer, there are many more studies that argue against that assertion. One study released in 2016 claimed that not factoring in the impact of menopause on the causal link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer may misconstrue many of the studies that do not exhibit a talcum powder ovarian cancer link.

When coupled with the decades of research, the Johnson & Johnson internal documents give the talcum powder cancer lawyers representing the plaintiffs a solid base upon which to build their argument that the company was long aware of the ovarian cancer link to their baby powder products and was negligent in protecting and informing their consumer base.

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