If These Walls Could Talk: Johnsons Baby Powder And Cancer

If you are a user of baby powder from Johnson's and Johnson's, you might want to pump the brakes on the product a little bit.

Johnson's and Johnson's (J&J) has been facing thousands of lawsuits from persons claiming that their baby powder has caused them cancer.

Baby powder, also called Talcum powder, is made from Talc. A naturally occurring mineral, dug from the earth where other minerals such as asbestos, used mainly in the manufacturing of construction materials, are found.

The connection between Talc and Asbestos is that they can naturally occur together, meaning Talc, used in making baby powder, may be tainted with asbestos, which has been linked to causing cancer. J&J has been accused of using Talc tainted with asbestos to make its baby powder.

In thousands of confidential documents that the company was forced to present to lawyers in a 2018 lawsuit, it was revealed that managers, executives, lawyers, and company doctors kept it from the public and regulators, that their talc and finished powders sometimes had traces of asbestos.

Over 61,000 plaintiffs have sued the company for illnesses such as ovarian cancer and mesothelioma(cancer of the tissue sorrounding the heart, lungs, and stomach) occasioned by the use of their Talc. 

J&J has moved to file a bankruptcy settlement for its subsidiaries. Filing bankruptcy for a subsidiary is a move that is often aimed at transferring legal liability from the main firm, to give it time to solve its issues.

The company has been denied the rights to file bankruptcy for its subsidiaries in the past, with judges stating the subsidiaries were not in financial distress and were ineligible for bankruptcy protection.

Plaintiffs on June 12, 2024 moved to court to seek a restraining order to stop the company from executing the move. The company, which has denied the asbestos claims on several occasions, says a bankruptcy settlement will pay the claimants equally, unlike the civil justice system.