{"id":1330,"date":"2024-06-12T22:20:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T22:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/43-states-reach-700-million-settlement-with-jj-in-talc-product-lawsuits\/"},"modified":"2024-06-12T22:20:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T22:20:00","slug":"43-states-reach-700-million-settlement-with-jj-in-talc-product-lawsuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/43-states-reach-700-million-settlement-with-jj-in-talc-product-lawsuits\/","title":{"rendered":"43 States Reach $700 Million Settlement With J&J in Talc Product Lawsuits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Attorneys general from 43 states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday announced a landmark $700 million settlement with Johnson & Johnson in multistate litigation targeting the harmful chemicals in its talcum-based body powder products.<\/p>\n

The states alleged in lawsuits<\/a> filed Tuesday that the pharmaceutical manufacturer intentionally deceived users\u00a0about the safety of\u00a0these products, including\u00a0Baby Powder and Shower to Shower,\u00a0since learning\u00a0of talcum\u2019s potentially carcinogenic properties as early as the 1950s. Talcum powder can contain asbestos, which has been linked to conditions such as\u00a0mesothelioma, cancer, fibrosis and lung disease. J&J has sold\u00a0more than 600 million talc products globally since 1992.<\/p>\n

The states claimed that the New Jersey-based company targeted women\u00a0and teenage girls, particularly in Black and Hispanic populations, by marketing its body powder as a \u201cfeminine hygiene product,\u201d\u00a0despite a number of medical studies proving that the use of talc compounds the risk for ovarian cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the 1980s, J&J knew of studies and other support information demonstrating that Talc Powder Products were sometimes tainted with carcinogenic asbestos and that women who used talc-based powders in the genital area had an increased risk of ovarian cancer compared to those women who do not. \u2026 Despite this knowledge, J&J continued marketing of Talc Powder Products as safe, pure, and gentle, and as suitable for use in and on female genitals,\u201d the complaint filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton states.<\/p>\n

J&J halted sales of Baby Powder in 2020, months after it was forced to issue a recall following the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s discovery of asbestos in\u00a0one of its bottles. A 2020\u00a0news release<\/a>\u00a0from the\u00a0company attributed discontinuing the product to \u201ca portfolio assessment related to COVID-19,\u201d not asbestos. In 2023, J&J globally\u00a0replaced\u00a0talc with cornstarch, which does not contain asbestos, in its product formula.<\/p>\n

The proposed settlement<\/a>, which is subject to court approval, will be paid out to states in four installments. The consent judgment permanently bans J&J from\u00a0manufacturing, marketing,\u00a0promoting, selling or distributing talc products in the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohnson\u00a0&\u00a0Johnson knew that it could not ensure the safety of its products for women and children and chose to prioritize profit over honesty. It\u2019s unacceptable, and for the people who were harmed, it\u2019s devastating,\u201d\u00a0said California Attorney General Rob Bonta in a\u00a0news release<\/a>.\u00a0\u201cToday and every day, I take pride in serving the people of California and holding those\u00a0who compromise consumer safety\u00a0accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

J&J was advised on the settlement by a team from O\u2019Melveny & Myers led by\u00a0partner Daniel Suvor, co-chair of the firm\u2019s State Attorneys General Investigations and Litigation Group. The firm declined to provide a comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsistent with the plan we outlined last year, the Company continues to pursue several paths to achieve a comprehensive and final resolution of the talc litigation,\u201d said\u00a0Erik Haas, J&J\u2019s worldwide vice president of litigation. \u201cThat progress includes the finalization of a previously announced agreement that the Company reached with a consortium of 43 State Attorneys Generals to resolve their talc claims. We will continue to address the claims of those who do not want to participate in our contemplated consensual bankruptcy resolution through litigation or settlement.\u201d<\/p>\n

States\u00a0named in the settlement, which was helmed by Florida, North Carolina and Texas, include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorneys general from 43 states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday announced a landmark $700 million settlement with Johnson & Johnson in multistate litigation targeting the harmful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[317,1159,1523,1885,399,1117,625],"class_list":["post-1330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-lawsuits","tag-million","tag-product","tag-reach","tag-settlement","tag-states","tag-talc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}