Johnson & Johnson stop selling ‘cancer risk’ baby powder

Firm faces 38,000 lawsuits over asbestos allegations

JOHNSON & Johnson will stop selling its talc-based baby powder next year as it fights thousands of lawsuits over alleged asbestos contamination.

The healthcare giant ended sales of talc powder in the US two years ago but is now withdrawing it entirely from shelves worldwide.

It is facing 38,000 lawsuits in America over claims that its talc products caused cancer due to the presence of asbestos, a carcinogen. J&J denies the allegations, saying decades of scientific testing and regulatory approvals have shown its talc to be safe and asbestos-free.

It reiterated that denial as it announced the total discontinuation of talc powder, which first went on sale in 1894.

In 2020, J&J claimed it was ending sales of baby powder in the US and Canada because demand had fallen in the wake of ‘misinformation’. It said in a statement on Thursday: ‘As part of a worldwide portfolio assessment, we have made the commercial decision to transition to an all cornstarch-based baby powder portfolio.’

In October, J&J created the subsidiary LTL Management, assigned its talc claims to it and immediately placed it into bankruptcy. This paused the lawsuits. Ben Whiting, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said that if the cases were allowed to move forward, the claimants could try to use J&J’s decision to pull the products as evidence.

Before the bankruptcy filing, J&J faced costs of £2.9billion in verdicts and settlements.

A 2018 Reuters investigation claimed that J&J knew for decades that asbestos was in its talc products. The news agency said internal company records and trial testimony showed that from at least 1971 to the early 2000s, its products sometimes tested positive for small amounts of asbestos.

In 2019, a California jury awarded a woman with terminal lung cancer £22million over fears talcum powder caused her illness. Terry Leavitt, who used J&J’s talc products for 30 years, was diagnosed in 2017, aged 52.

And in 2016, in the first such award, the company was ordered to pay £51million in damages to the family of Jacqueline Fox, from Birmingham, Alabama, whose death from ovarian cancer was linked to her use of its talc-based products.

Talc is mined from the earth and is found in seams close to asbestos.