A California Appeals Court Upholds $22 Million Talc Asbestos Cancer Verdict Against Imerys

A California appeals court judge confirms that talc mined by Imerys was contaminated by asbestos.

Saturday, December 26, 2020 - Talc is the main ingredient in Johnson's Baby Powder and hundreds of other cosmetic brands sold throughout the world. Juries in the United States have awarded women with ovarian cancer hundreds of millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages, and also men and women a similar amount for developing mesothelioma from inhaling talc dust. Johnson's Baby Powder and other aerosol deodorants produce an inhalable cloud of dust when applied, exposing babies and adults to asbestos-contaminated talc. Over 20,000 court cases are pending against Johnson & Johnson that allege the company covered up what they knew about cancer dangers their talc presented to their customers. Johnson & Johnson used Imery's as their sole supplier of talc until Imery's filed for bankruptcy in 2019. The company buckled under the pressure of being named a co-defendant with Johnson & Johnson in thousands of mesothelioma and ovarian cancer lawsuits. Talc asbestos cancer lawyers continue to accept clients that have used Johnson's Baby Powder regularly for many years and have developed cancer.

It seems to be a forgone conclusion that Imery's talc is contaminated by asbestos. Imery's has represented their talc as being pure and free from asbestos even though the product is harvested in mines that are adjacent, interlaced, and overlapping asbestos deposits. Most cosmetic companies like Clubman, Revlon, and others may have failed to test their talc for asbestos and instead relied on Imery's talc safety and purity assurances. Thousands of miners and also people that lived in proximity to Imery's talc mining operations have died from developing mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs associated with inhaling asbestos. Given that most talc is mined by blasting it out of the earth and into the air, it seems unlikely that asbestos and talc would be separated. Scientists believe that asbestos and talc can not be separated once intermingled and that no amount of asbestos is considered safe to ingest.

An article published the other day in Mesothelioma.net reports that a court decision against Imery's in a major talc asbestos cancer trial from several years ago was recently upheld by the Court of Appeals of California which confirmed the original court decision and ordered the company to pay the family of a plaintiff $22 million. According to Mesothelioma.net, "It's been nearly three years since a California jury awarded Richard Booker's family $22 million in damages following his death from malignant mesothelioma. In the years since one of the two companies named as defendants has worked to have that decision reversed. Despite Imery's Talc America's multi-part appeal, the Court of Appeals of California confirmed the original court decision and ordered the company to pay the family what the jury said that they were owed." The court was unconvinced by Imery's argument that their talc was asbestos-free. The appeals court judge was convinced that "talc sourced from Grantham and Panamint (Imrey's) during the exposure period consistently contained tremolite asbestos.