J&J wins trial over retired teacher’s baby powder cancer claim

Johnson & Johnson won the latest trial last week over claims its iconic baby powder can cause cancer, as a jury in Long Beach rejected a lawsuit brought by a 65-year-old retired teacher who claimed the product was contaminated with asbestos.NPP powder

The J&J victory Friday came the week after the company settled three cases alleging baby powder caused a rare asbestos-connected cancer. Two, in Oklahoma and California, were settled during trial. The other, in New York, was settled less than two weeks before trial was set to begin.

Plaintiff Robert Blinkinsop was diagnosed in July 2017 with mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the lung generally caused by asbestos exposure. Blinkinsop used Johnson’s baby powder daily for personal hygiene from 1977 to 1994 and on his children from 1992 to 1996, his attorney, Mark Bratt, said at trial. He also used the company’s Shower to Shower talc product.

J&J is facing more than 13,000 lawsuits linking baby powder and Shower to Shower to ovarian cancer or mesothelioma. More than two dozen trials have been scheduled in U.S. courts in 2019.“Today’s jury unanimously ruled that Johnson’s Baby Powder does not contain asbestos and was not the cause of the plaintiff’s disease,” Kim Montagnino, company spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement. “This conclusion is aligned to the decades of clinical evidence and scientific studies by medical experts around the world that support the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder.’’

“Given the hundreds of positive historical tests from J&J showing asbestos in its talc containing baby powder, as well as J&J’s ongoing decision to use deceptive testing techniques that allow for false negative results ― we have no doubt asbestos was, and currently still is in J&Js talc baby powder products,” Bratt said in a statement. “Asbestos in baby powder is a huge public health concern that is far bigger than just this case.”