J&J Loses $417 Million Talc Verdict in First California Case

[Right_in_Virginia]

J&J Loses $417 Million Talc Verdict in First California Case
Bloomberg, Aug 21, 2017, Margaret Cronin Fisk and Edvard Pettersson

Johnson & Johnson was ordered by a Los Angeles jury to pay $417 million to a 62-year-old woman who blamed her ovarian cancer on the company’s talc, in the first California trial over the product.

The jury found the parent company and its consumer-products unit liable Monday for failing to warn a woman over the alleged risk of the baby powder. The verdict includes $347 million in punitive damages. J&J, which faces 5,500 claims in U.S. courts, has lost four previous jury verdicts in St. Louis for a total of $300 million.

The trial in Los Angeles was the first before a state jury outside Missouri, where the company lost four out of five trials over the past 2 years and got hit with verdicts as high as $110 million. J&J is appealing the verdicts and in June succeeded in halting a trial in St. Louis after the U.S. Supreme Court made it more difficult for out-of-state plaintiffs to join lawsuits in state courts that are deemed favorable to their claims.


More: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-21/j-j-loses-417-million-talc-verdict-in-first-california-trial

[SZonian]

Shouldn't there be millions of people with cancer then?

Powder has been sprinkled into diapers for decades...

and yeah, I know this is about powder in underwear, but I'd think the same type of exposure would apply.

[Smokin Joe]

Shouldn't there be millions of people with cancer then?

Powder has been sprinkled into diapers for decades...

and yeah, I know this is about powder in underwear, but I'd think the same type of exposure would apply.

:huh?:

Ovaries are pretty far up the pipe from the skivvies. I would think ordinary cycles would have moved that stuff out of the intervening plumbing, too.

[Sanguine]

Yeah, I suspect this may be an Alar and silicone kind of thing.

[corbe]

   I quit using that stuff on what once was my ovaries (they dropped) and switched to boxers, so the boys could breath.

[mountaineer]

Shouldn't there be millions of people with cancer then?

Powder has been sprinkled into diapers for decades...

and yeah, I know this is about powder in underwear, but I'd think the same type of exposure would apply.

Like so many personal injury cases, it's not about facts - just deep pockets.

[Sanguine]

   I quit using that stuff on what once was my ovaries (they dropped) and switched to boxers, so the boys could breath.

Obviously some gender dysphoria going on.  I wonder if lavender baby powder caused it?

[thackney]

Obviously some gender dysphoria going on.  I wonder if lavender baby powder caused it?

They are claiming the problem is talc.  This is going to impact a lot of related products.

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/talcum-powder-and-cancer.html

[Wingnut]

California whichhunts are very lucrative.....for lawyers.

[Smokin Joe]

They are claiming the problem is talc.  This is going to impact a lot of related products.

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/talcum-powder-and-cancer.html

From that link, those results seem to be inconclusive.

Many studies in women have looked at the possible link between talcum powder and cancer of the ovary. Findings have been mixed, with some studies reporting a slightly increased risk and some reporting no increase. Many case-control studies have found a small increase in risk. But these types of studies can be biased because they often rely on a person’s memory of talc use many years earlier. Two prospective cohort studies, which would not have the same type of potential bias, have not found an increased risk.

[driftdiver]

$417 million for a single person?     The 'victim' is 62 which means she can be expected to live another 16-20 years at most anyway.   Thats $20 million a year.

[Smokin Joe]

$417 million for a single person?     The 'victim' is 62 which means she can be expected to live another 16-20 years at most anyway.   Thats $20 million a year.

That's before the attorneys get their cut...

[mountaineer]

That's before the attorneys get their cut...

Yeah, after that she'll get a cup of coffee and $20.

[goatprairie]

Yeah, after that she'll get a cup of coffee and $20.

I think the law firm representing the woman for their logo probably has a picture of a mouthpiece with a briefcase chasing after an ambulance.

[driftdiver]

That's before the attorneys get their cut...

One of the lawyers that won the Florida case against big tobacco has a massive house on the water here in Tampa.   Its about a $10million dollar house.

[andy58-in-nh]

I think the law firm representing the woman for their logo probably has a picture of a mouthpiece with a briefcase chasing after an ambulance.

[catfish1957]

They are claiming the problem is talc.  This is going to impact a lot of related products.

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/talcum-powder-and-cancer.html

I haven't seen the epidemiological data, but it is my understanding that talc is about the most inert substance on earth.  The only pathological means of disease would seem that the ovary tissue must be encapsulaing the talc particulate.  Maybe the same way asbestos does in aveoli tissue in the lungs.  Also seems anatomically that a heavy mineral would have problems navigating the female plumbing.  Wonder how well the research was vetted?

[thackney]

I haven't seen the epidemiological data, but it is my understanding that talc is about the most inert substance on earth.  The only pathological means of disease would seem that the ovary tissue must be encapsulaing the talc particulate.  Maybe the same way asbestos does in aveoli tissue in the lungs.  Also seems anatomically that a heavy mineral would have problems navigating the female plumbing.  Wonder how well the research was vetted?

They are convincing juries. They have already lost 4 other trials and won one on the same issue.  Also a federal court found them negligent but no damages.

http://blog.cvn.com/1st-california-talc-powder-trial-and-key-pretrial-hearing-to-be-webcast-live

[austingirl]

IMO this is absurd from an anatomical and physiological perspective and slick lawyers are fooling gullible juries. The defense should be able to debunk the claim. The monetary award is ridiculous.

[goatprairie]

Shouldn't there be millions of people with cancer then?

Powder has been sprinkled into diapers for decades...

and yeah, I know this is about powder in underwear, but I'd think the same type of exposure would apply.

Most people aren't doctors or scientific researchers. But they can still find the truth about things without being either. By using the exact method you just listed.
 I, too, wonder if talc is such a damaging agent, why haven't we seen millions of deaths related to its use?
I've known a number of heavy smokers who've contracted lung cancer.  Same kind of inquiry concerning talcum powder.

[catfish1957]

Most people aren't doctors or scientific researchers. But they can still find the truth about things without being either. By using the exact method you just listed.
 I, too, wonder if talc is such a damaging agent, why haven't we seen millions of deaths related to its use?
I've known a number of heavy smokers who've contracted lung cancer.  Same kind of inquiry concerning talcum powder.

Before retiring...  my field

Here is one of my old favorites....  Gotta beware of this stuff folks.

http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

[driftdiver]

Talcum powder is made of talc.  A mineral which contains mainly the elements magnesium, silicon, and oxygen.

I have a very hard time believing talc can cause cancer.  If it did wouldn't it be a cancer in the area where it made contact and not a part of the body well away from the contact?  Talcum powder is used as an anticaking agent in table salt. 

A wiki article indicates there are 1200 lawsuits pending for this issue.

The only risk I found was that talc is mined from areas where asbestos is found.   Proper mining techniques prevent contamination and testing by the Govt has shown zero asbestos in samples of talc.  again according to wiki one of the studies on whether it was safe, published in 1993, was a US National Toxicology Program report, which found that cosmetic grade talc containing no asbestos-like fibres was correlated with tumor formation in rats forced to inhale talc for 6 hours a day, five days a week over at least 113 weeks

This is nothing more than a shake down of deep pockets.

[Smokin Joe]

I haven't seen the epidemiological data, but it is my understanding that talc is about the most inert substance on earth.  The only pathological means of disease would seem that the ovary tissue must be encapsulaing the talc particulate.  Maybe the same way asbestos does in aveoli tissue in the lungs.  Also seems anatomically that a heavy mineral would have problems navigating the female plumbing.  Wonder how well the research was vetted?

Some talc, as mined, contains small amounts of acicular pyroxenes and asbestos. That has been eliminated in processing since the 1970s. Perhaps some of this was from that, but the article up thread basically says the results of studies in vitro vary from no effect to perhaps a very slight one for talc, itself. Epidemiological studies also vary in that some find no effect from using talcum powder (even from the pre-70s batches), to only a very slight increase which may be withing the realm of statistical noise.

Nothing like the correlation (and likely causation) found between clinical abortion and breast cancer where risk is multiplied by a whole number instead of a minuscule fraction.

[edpc]

   I quit using that stuff on what once was my ovaries (they dropped) and switched to boxers, so the boys could breath.

The best thing for balls.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

This is not finding a culprit that caused a problem.

This is fabricating a problem to go after one of the largest healthcare company there is.

While it appears there is no substance to the suit, the issue becomes how much diversion of resources will occur to J&J when they should be pursuing the next big research into medical breakthroughs. 

Which do we want, new medicines or enriching lawyers?