Jury awards $40 million to 2 women who say Johnson's talc caused their cancer

A Los Angeles jury awarded $40 million to two women who alleged that the talc manufactured by Johnson & Johnson caused them ovarian cancer.

The personal care products company indicated that it will appeal the verdict on liability and compensatory damages.

The Friday’s ruling is the most recent event in a prolonged legal battle over allegations that Johnson’s baby powder and Shower to Shower body powder were linked to ovarian cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer that affects the lungs and other organs. Johnson & Johnson stopped selling talc-made powder worldwide in 2023.

In October, another California jury ordered J&J to pay $966 million to the family of a woman who died of mesothelioma, alleging that she developed the cancer because the baby powder she used was contaminated with asbestos, a carcinogen.

In the most recent case, the jury awarded $18 million to Monica Kent and $22 million to Deborah Schultz and her husband. “The only thing they did was be loyal to Johnson & Johnson as customers for only 50 years,” said their lawyer, Daniel Robinson, of the law firm Robinson Calcagnie in Newport Beach, California. “That loyalty was one-sided.”

Erik Haas, J&J’s vice president of litigation worldwide, said in a statement that the company had won “16 of the 17 ovarian cancer cases it had previously tried,” and expects to do so again when appealing Friday’s verdict.

Haas stated that the jury’s findings are “irreconcilable with the decades of independent scientific evaluations confirming that talc is safe, asbestos-free, and does not cause cancer.”

Johnson & Johnson replaced talc in its baby powder sold in most of North America with cornstarch in 2020 after sales declined.