A Los Angeles jury has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $40 million to two women, Monica Kent and Deborah Schultz, who claimed that the company's talcum powder products caused their ovarian cancer. The verdict, delivered on Friday, included $18 million awarded to Kent and $22 million to Schultz and her husband. The jury concluded that Johnson & Johnson was aware of the dangers associated with its talc-based products for years but failed to adequately warn consumers.
Both Kent and Schultz, California residents, testified that they used Johnson & Johnson's baby powder after bathing for approximately 40 years. They were diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2014 and 2018, respectively, and underwent significant treatments, including major surgeries and numerous rounds of chemotherapy. Their attorney argued that Johnson & Johnson had knowledge of the product's potential to cause cancer as early as the 1960s and deliberately concealed this information.
Johnson & Johnson promptly announced its intention to appeal the verdict. Erik Haas, the company's worldwide vice president of litigation, stated that the company expects to succeed in its appeal, citing its track record of winning "16 of the 17 ovarian cancer cases it previously tried". Haas maintained that the jury's findings are inconsistent with decades of independent scientific evaluations that confirm talc's safety, its lack of asbestos, and its inability to cause cancer. The company's legal defense also argued that there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that talc can migrate from the external body to reproductive organs to cause cancer.
This verdict is the latest development in an extensive legal battle involving tens of thousands of lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson over claims that its talc-based powders, including Johnson's Baby Powder and Shower to Shower, caused ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. In October, another California jury ordered J&J to pay $966 million to the family of a woman who died of mesothelioma, attributing her cancer to asbestos contamination in baby powder. Johnson & Johnson ceased selling talc-based powders globally in 2023, having replaced talc with cornstarch in its baby powder in most of North America in 2020 due to declining sales. The company's attempts to resolve the litigation through a $9 billion bankruptcy settlement proposal have been rejected multiple times by federal courts.