The IARC Had Known For Over A Decade That Asbestos Can Cause Ovarian Cancer

Johnson & Johnson ignored the IARC who found a scientific connection between being exposed to asbestos and developing ovarian cancer.

Wednesday, October 13, 2021 - Johnson and Johnson won three post-pandemic jury verdicts in a row over the summer and fall defeating the claims of women with ovarian cancer who blamed Johnson's baby powder for causing their rare form of cancer. The consecutive losses come after the US Supreme Court refused to hear a final appeal of a record-setting $2.1 billion jury award to 22 women with the same talcum powder cancer claim. Johnson & Johnson had previously lost their appeal in the Missouri court of appeals when the judge called the company's behavior regarding asbestos contaminating their talc supply "particularly reprehensible." The judge may have been responding to the opening statement of the honorable Hon. Raja Krishnamoorthi (chairman of the subcommittee) investigating talcum powder cancer risk. The Congressman was angered to learn that when the company was pressed to label Johnson's baby powder to include a cancer warning, they instead redirected their marketing of baby powder towards African American and obese women, a demographic the company assumed to be less well informed. The three women who were defeated by Johnson & Johnson include an Ashkenazi Jew whose genetic history caused her to have a greater risk of developing ovarian cancer than the public in general, a fact the defense highlighted. Another johnson & johnson victory was noteworthy because the leading expert witness for the defense refused to come back to court for cross-examination and was held by the judge in contempt, creating grounds for an appeal.

Johnson & Johnson has quickly spun each of the jury awards to ignore the administrative details and to promote their talcum powder as safe, pure, and asbestos-free. After the most recent defense verdict in an Augusta, Georgia court, attorneys blamed the plaintiff lawyer's greed and a lack of scientific evidence linking talcum powder to causing ovarian cancer. The plaintiffs failed to consider a scientific study published by the National Institute of Health which found just such a connection. "Conclusions: Our study supports the Internations (IARC) conclusion that asbestos exposure is associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer. In 2008, cancer of the ovary represented the second leading cause of gynecologic cancer death worldwide (Ferlay et al. 2010," the NIH reported. The IARC had written, ": A recent Monographs Working Group of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concluded that there is sufficient evidence for a causal association between exposure to asbestos and ovarian cancer." When the US Food and Drug Administration tested bottles of johnsons baby powder they bought from store shelve they found asbestos in every sample. Other scientific experts will be allowed to testify in Federal court where more than 30,000 talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits wait their turn. One scientist will tell jurors that talc is carcinogenic and particles of talc contaminated with asbestos can enter the vagina, travel up through the Fallopian tubes, and become permanently lodged in the ovaries causing sufficient oxidative stress over the months and years to promote the development of cancer.

Information provided by TalcumPowderCancerLawsuit.com, a website devoted to providing news about talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits, as well as medical research and findings.