Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay record $417 million in lawsuit linking baby powder to cancer

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

A Los Angeles jury on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay a record $417 million (U.S.) to a hospitalized woman who claimed in a lawsuit that the talc in the company’s iconic baby powder causes ovarian cancer when applied regularly for feminine hygiene.

California woman Eva Echeverria alleged Johnson & Johnson failed to adequately warn consumers about talcum powder’s potential cancer risks. She used the company’s baby powder on a daily basis beginning in the 1950s until 2016 and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, according to court papers.

Echeverria developed ovarian cancer as a “proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder,” she said in her lawsuit.

Click here to read the Toronto Star article.