Johnson & Johnson's Faces State Investigation For Alleged Fraudulent Talcum Powder Marketing Practices

Investigators are looking into claims that the company deliberately targeted obese and African American women when they became aware that their talc supply could be asbestos-contaminated

Wednesday, May 6, 2020 - Johnson & Johnson has released their first quarter of 2020 financial statement reflecting developments in their ongoing battle with consumers that have developed ovarian cancer and mesothelioma from using their iconic Johnson's Baby Powder regularly throughout their lifetimes. Close to 20,000 lawsuits have been filed accusing the company of knowing or having the responsibility to know and failing to warn consumers that Johnson's Baby Powder talc is contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen. Juries from Missouri to New Jersey have awarded plaintiffs with cancer billions of dollars in punitive damages, the most recent a $750 million jury award to four plaintiffs in New Jersey that allegedly developed Mesothelioma from a lifetime of inhaling talc dust. The enormity of the jury award may be partially attributed to the attitude of Johnson & Johnson CEO Gorsky who was forced to testify and told jurors that he does not read talc asbestos memos and instead refers them to company experts, possibly implying to the jury seated to determine a dollar amount of punitive damages that he felt he was too busy and did not take the talc/asbestos issue seriously. A Federal Judge in New Jersey has consolidated around 12,000 cases brought on behalf of women with ovarian cancer into a Multi-district litigation (MDL) and will allow expert testimony like that of microscope researcher Dr. William Longo whose talc testing has found asbestos in around 65% of the samples taken from unopened bottles of Johnson's Baby Powder purchase from collectors over the internet, as well as those purchased from store shelves at pharmacies such as Walmart, CVS, and Rite Aid, to be brought before juries. Dr. Longo recently testified before Congress about a type of talc-purity testing method that the US Food and Drug Administration may require to be used by the entire cosmetics industry, saying, "The Liquid Separation Method LSM yields far better results when looking for asbestos in talc... (and) is 2100 to 3100 times more sensitive than those used by industry and the FDA contract laboratory. Using HLS approximately 65% of the cosmetic talc samples we have analyzed, have been positive for amphibole asbestos." The FDA also recently ran independent tests on bottles of Johnson's Baby Powder and found asbestos prompting Johnson & Johnson to recall 33,000 bottles of a particular batch of talcum powder from retail shelves out of what the company called "an abundance of caution." Talcum powder lawsuits continue to be filed against J&J for harmful side effects to due asbestos contamination in their talcum powders and attorneys representing people nationwide, offer a free consultation.

The highlight of the current quarterly report was the subject of a recent article in AboutLawsuits.com that wrote about how 40 US States have joined New Mexico in an investigation into the potentially fraudulent advertising the company used to market their carcinogenic baby powder product. AL writes: "In recent regulatory filings, Johnson & Johnson says it now faces a joint investigation by at least 41 states, examining how the company marketed Johnson's Baby Powder and other talcum powder products." On a related note, previous lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson have revealed Johnson & Johnson company memos that indicate not only that the company was aware that it had a talc asbestos problem back in the early 1970s, but also, redirected their national advertising to target African American women, race-shaming them into thinking that using Johnson's Baby Powder would make them feel and smell more like white women, according to Reuters. You can read the full article at https://www.reuters.com/article/us-johnson-johnson-marketing-specialrepo/special-report-as-baby-powder-concerns-mounted-jj-focused-marketing-on-minority-overweight-women-idUSKCN1RL1JZ.