Missouri jury awards $72M in Johnson & Johnson cancer suit

Jurors in a Missouri court ruled on late Monday night that the family of Jacqueline Fox should get $10 million of actual damages and $62 million of punitive damages. The jury found the women’s use of talc-based products manufactured by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) contributed to her cancer. But the answer to this question is murky. It’s widely used in cosmetics and personal care products to absorb moisture, cut down on friction, prevent caking, and improve the product’s feel. For many years, parents used it to diaper babies, until doctors began discouraging it for health reasons. “If you are concerned, just don’t use it”, she said. Asbestos have since been removed form the product.

The FDA does not allow talc-based products to contain any asbestos. And yet, they did not remove it from their products.

In 2007, a combined analysis of nine studies looking at talc from contraceptive diaphragms (caps) failed to show any link between talc and ovarian cancer.

As of now, it’s unclear.

Sarah Williams, Cancer Research UK’s health information manager, said: “If there were a link, any increase in risk would be fairly small, and as ovarian cancer is a relatively rare disease, overall women who use talc would still have a low chance of developing the disease”. Many case-control studies have found a small increase in risk. “And there are lots of different variables in these studies for researchers consider”. Among carriers of that gene, about 400 in 1,000 will go on to develop ovarian cancer, he said. Experts said these sorts of studies are less rigorous and prone to bias as women struggle to recall how much or how often they used talcum powder. LEVEL OF PROOF Cramer, a paid consultant for plaintiff attorneys in the trial against J&J, demonstrated that increased risk in case-controlled studies, which compared past talcum use in women who developed ovarian cancer to women who did not. He said one company internal document talks about declining product use because of increased awareness of the health risk, and how to grow the franchise by targeting blacks and Hispanics as the highest users of talcum powder. About two years after diagnosis, she lost her fight.

Some scientists have suggested that talc particles could travel to the ovaries, irritate them and cause inflammation.

But the Cancer Council of Australia says there’s not enough evidence to conclude that the use of talcum powder leads to ovarian cancer.

Another study looked at data on 11,933 women and found that any possible tie between talcum powder and ovarian cancer could not be determined due to other variables.

The evidence around asbestos-free talcum products and cancer risk is more unclear.

The Canadian Cancer Society says that research studies on the use of talcum powder on the genital area and the risk of ovarian cancer have had “mixed” results.