Talcum Powder Lawsuits Filed In Pacific Northwest
Four Johnson & Johnson's baby powder lawsuits were filed by women from Oregon and Washington state who claim the company knew their product held ties to ovarian cancer and did't warn consumers.
Tuesday, November 22, 2016 - A group of talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits were filed in the Pacific Northwest against Johnson & Johnson in November. The allegations claimed the health care company did not properly warn consumers of the carcinogenic properties of their talcum powder products and that as a result the plaintiffs were put at a higher risk of contracting ovarian cancer. These Johnson & Johnson's baby powder lawsuits are among more than 2,000 currently pending nationwide against the company, which has maintained its innocence throughout the proceedings.
Four women, one who has passed away, are being represented by talcum powder lawyers seeking to win damages from Johnson & Johnson for contributing to their ovarian cancer diagnoses. The plaintiffs claim that Johnson & Johnson had been aware of decades of medical studies conducted into the connection between talcum powder and ovarian cancer but did not lawfully warn consumers. The popular cosmetic was instead allegedly marketed for regular use as a genital hygienic, the exact application that had been researched for a connection with ovarian cancer.
All four of the women who filed baby powder cancer lawsuits in the Pacific Northwest had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer since 2008, with one receiving her diagnosis as recently as April 2016. The plaintiff who passed away from the disease did so in February of 2015 and is represented by her family in the talcum powder lawsuit. Three of the women hail from Washington state, while the last is from Oregon. All four of the claims were filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court, where a number of additional talcum powder lawsuits have been filed in recent months.
The medical studies into an ovarian cancer-talcum powder link, which have been taking place since the 1970's, have in some instances put the increased risk of contracting the disease at greater than 30 percent for women who use the product for regular genital hygiene. Johnson & Johnson's baby powder attorneys representing the plaintiffs have discovered internal documents that proves the company was aware of these findings and never affixed a warning label to its products to alert the public to these developments.
Instead, Johnson & Johnson has been fighting the talcum powder lawsuits and losing, being penalized a total of $197 million in damages in 2016 alone following three trials. The company claims that the science behind the research conducted into talcum powder is inconclusive and does not meet the necessary threshold for legal action. The company has presented studies it believes vindicate its stance, though that evidence hasn't yet swayed jurors in their favor.
Though the talcum powder lawsuits will enter the legal system, there is no guarantee they will ever reach trials of their own. Some legal experts predict Johnson & Johnson may choose to settle nationwide talcum powder litigation in the near future if high-dollar decisions keep going in favor of plaintiffs. Most federal litigation will also join the MDL recently established by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to help coordinate proceedings for talcum powder lawsuits around the country, which lessens the chance many of them will stand individual trials of their own.
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