Talcum Powder Lawsuits Pass Status Conference Hearing
The St. Louis talcum powder lawsuits progressed towards a possible trial as a status conference hearing took place on July 14.
Monday, July 20, 2015 - The status conference hearing regarding talcum powder lawsuits filed in a St. Louis circuit court took place on July 14, moving the cases closer to the beginning of a trial. Plaintiffs in the lawsuits claim that talcum powder products manufactured and sold by Johnson & Johnson, Imerys Talc America and Walgreens carried a heightened risk for ovarian cancer when used regularly. The allegations assert that those risks were never communicated to the consumers, and that the failure to warn potential purchasers of the product's connection to ovarian cancer was grounds for the hundreds of lawsuits that have been filed around the country.
The status conference hearing was held to determine which cases could be resolved before proceeding in the talcum powder litigation, and which ones would indeed go forward. The results of the status conference hearing were not made public, but its completion indicates the progression of the lawsuits filed as they move toward a possible trial. 50 plaintiffs total took part in the status conference, which was presided over by Judge Rex M. Burlison.
The plaintiffs in the talcum powder lawsuits claim that defendants Johnson & Johnson, Imerys Talc America and Walgreens were all at fault in manufacturing and selling talcum powder that is allegedly linked to ovarian cancer. The plaintiffs have referenced a number of studies conducted as far back as 1973 that link talcum powder to a higher risk of ovarian cancer.
The studies have demonstrated that when used regularly, talcum powder can travel up a woman's vaginal tract to the ovaries, where they can contribute to the development of ovarian cancer. Talcum powder used to contain asbestos until the FDA outlawed the ingredient in the powders in 1973. Plaintiffs claim however that talcum powder still has cancer-causing particles and its lack of regulation by the FDA has led to consumers around the country contracting ovarian cancer caused by their regular talcum powder use.
Citing the decades of studies performed investigating the link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer, the plaintiffs are claiming that the defendants failure to warn consumers of the potential dangers of the product was illegal. Some studies, including one performed by the medical journal Cancer Prevention Research, have found that regular talcum powder use by women can increase the risk of ovarian cancer by up to 30 percent. Plaintiffs claim that these risks were ignored by the manufacturers in an attempt to continue to market the product free of the deadly associations with cancer.
In a similar lawsuit settled in California earlier this year, a woman was awarded more than $12 million dollars in response to her claims that talcum powder manufactured by Colgate-Palmolive was connected to her contraction of the cancer disease mesothelioma. Lawsuits around the country have been filed on similar claims, with a majority of those suits occurring in New Jersey. The cases in New Jersey, where Johnson & Johnson is headquartered, were recently requested to be consolidated before a single judge by the defendants as the number of claims were becoming excessive to litigate individually. More lawsuits are expected to be filed around the country as well as news of the link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer spreads.
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