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J&J Talc 4/7
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Johnson & Johnson Preyed on Black Women’s Bodies
Apr 6, 2016 | TIME
By Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley
...Fox joined more than 1,000 women suing Johnson & Johnson and Imerys, the talc supplier, for failing to put warnings on talcum-based products despite knowing of potential cancer risks since 1979. -
Should you stop using baby powder?
Apr 6, 2016 | Deseret News
By Jennifer Graham
A thousand women are suing Johnson & Johnson, saying the company knew its iconic Johnson's Baby Powder caused cancer yet covered up the risk. A trial set to begin April 11 in St. Louis comes on the heels of a $72 million award to the family of an Alabama woman who died of ovarian cancer at age 62 after using the powder every day since she was a teen. -
Johnson & Johnson faces another ovarian cancer lawsuit in St Louis on April 11
Apr 7, 2016 | International Business Times
By Vittorio Hernandez
Two months after the landmark Missouri state jury award of $72 million (AUD$100 million) to the family of Alabama resident Jacqueline Fox, Johnson & Johnson is again facing another court on Monday. -
This is what African women should watch out for as Johnson and Johnson expands its reach on the continent
Apr 7, 2016 | Ventures Africa
By Omono Eremionkhale
Following the recent opening of a Johnson and Johnson (J&J) outlet in South Africa, the United States drug giant is committed to expanding its reach even further to Kenya and Ghana.
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Johnson & Johnson Preyed on Black Women’s Bodies
Apr 6, 2016 | TIME
By Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley
As Bloomberg Businessweek reports, every morning for almost 40 years, Jacqueline Fox sprinkled baby powder into her panties before she put them on. “I was raised up on it,” she later explained in a deposition. “They was to help you stay fresh and clean. … We ladies have to take care of ourselves.” Only after being diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer in 2013, did she learn talcum powder could be a possible carcinogen.
Fox joined more than 1,000 women suing Johnson & Johnson and Imerys, the talc supplier, for failing to put warnings on talcum-based products despite knowing of potential cancer risks since 1979. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, an internal company memo years ago acknowledged potential cancer links, but it simultaneously recommended more aggressive marketing to African American women. Months after her death in October, Fox—who was African-American—became the first plaintiff to be awarded damages; the jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay her family $72 million. Her son wept openly at the verdict.
Like pressing our hair and lotioning our legs, douching and deodorizing vaginas is something black women teach our daughters and sister-friends teach our friends. It’s part of black women’s culture of self-care, one of many ways we love and nurture bodies nobody else seems ready to pamper. When we decide to do something with our bodies, well, we do it. Black women spend about four times as much as white women on hair, and twice as many black women douche and deodorize compared with our white counterparts, according to research by Francesca Branch, Tracey J. Woodruff, Susanna D. Mitro and Ami R. Zota. The researchers found that like baby powder, over-the-counter douches and vaginal deodorizers contain ingredients—namely, phthalates—linked to cancer, among other health risks not listed on labels.
Why do black women work so hard to keep our vaginas from smelling like we ever bleed, orgasm, sweat or eat catfish? In her insightful article “An Odor of Racism: Vaginal Deodorants in African-American Beauty Culture and Advertising,” Michelle Ferranti writes: “For many recently emancipated African Americans, a clean and odor-free body signified personal progress and enterprise, and the hope for racial assimilation.” The first documented reference to douching comes in an 1803 medical manual for the treatment of West Indian slaves, which lists excessive vaginal discharge as a common complaint and prescribes twice-daily douching.
The need to alter enslaved women’s vaginal odor and discharge adds a misogynist twist to pernicious stereotypes of blacks’ “strong and very disagreeable odor,” to quote Thomas Jefferson. If racism posits that blacks reek, and misogyny teaches us that vaginas are rank, how difficult does it become for black women to love the scent of our healthy vaginas?
Johnson & Johnson and other companies are ready to profit from these myths of the excessive black vagina. They’re willing to capitalize on our internalized misogynoir even if we die in the process. For decades, companies, including Johnson & Johnson, continued marketing to encourage black women to spend money on talcum power, which could cause cancer in our reproductive organs even as they promise to “freshen” them. Because buyers were women, they were the advertisers’ targets; because they were women, they were vulnerable to side effects the companies never exposed.
Last week in my black feminisms course, we discussed the importance of cunnicentrism in black women’s art. Yes, cunnicentrism: aesthetic appreciation for colors (pink, purple), shapes (circles, triangles), and textures (wet, viscous) associated with the vulva and vagina. And, as I added in my lecture, while we can’t see them in visual art, we shouldn’t forget taste and smell. We should all learn to take care of our vaginas every day, and, no, vaginas don’t smell like flowers or baby powder. They smell like a human body, and part of claiming our full humanity is being able to be proud of every aspect of them.
As Fox said: “we ladies need to take care of ourselves.” In light of these recent lawsuits, we need to rethink what “taking care of ourselves” means. For black women, cunnicentrism not only stands to celebrate our bodies; It can save our lives.
Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley is associate professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and a Public Voices Fellow for the OpEd Project.
http://time.com/4280707/johnson-and-johnson-black-women/
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Should you stop using baby powder?
Apr 6, 2016 | Deseret News
By Jennifer Graham
A thousand women are suing Johnson & Johnson, saying the company knew its iconic Johnson's Baby Powder caused cancer yet covered up the risk. A trial set to begin April 11 in St. Louis comes on the heels of a $72 million award to the family of an Alabama woman who died of ovarian cancer at age 62 after using the powder every day since she was a teen.
Although Johnson & Johnson assures customers its product is safe, the litigation and resulting publicity has families asking if a century-old fixture in nurseries and bathrooms is dangerous. The answer, according to the American Cancer Society and other medical professionals, is "probably not" — unless you use a lot of it for a long time. But they advise consumers to be careful, and one doctor is crusading against it, saying the product should carry a warning label.
Like most forms of powder, Johnson's Baby Powder contains fragrance and talc, which, as Bloomberg Businessweek reports, "is the softest mineral on earth."
"It’s composed of magnesium, silicon and oxygen and is mined, usually from deposits above ground, in more than a dozen countries. It’s used in eye shadow and blush and chewing gum, but mostly it’s used in ceramics, paint, paper, plastic and rubber. China is the biggest source; Johnson & Johnson’s supply comes from the southern province of Guangxi," Bloomberg reporters Susan Berfield, Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk wrote.
The company has built a brand around baby products that appeal to adults. Johnson & Johnson has said 70 percent of its powder is used by adults who often have powerful memories associated with the smell, Bloomberg reported.
"The company has said that in blind tests, the scent of Baby Powder is recognized more often than that of chocolate, coconut or mothballs," Berfield, Feeley and Fisk wrote.
Some talc, however, contains asbestos, a substance known to cause lung and other forms of cancer. In the U.S., commercially-available talcum powder has had to be free of asbestos since the 1970s, the American Cancer Society says.
Whether asbestos-free talc causes cancer remains unclear, the group says, noting that some studies have suggested a slightly higher risk of cancer with use while others say there is no increase of risk.
The Cancer Society concludes, "Until more information is available, people concerned about using talcum powder may want to avoid or limit their use of consumer products that contain it. For example, they may want to consider using cornstarch-based cosmetic products instead. There is no evidence at this time linking cornstarch powders with any form of cancer."
Baby powder is considered a cosmetic, and as such, does not require approval from the Food and Drug Administration. However, the FDA has tested the powder and other cosmetics containing talc and found no asbestos. The FDA said the tests were "informative" but "do not prove that most or all talc or talc-containing cosmetic products currently marketed in the United States are likely to be free of asbestos contamination."
The American Academy of Pediatricians says to keep powder away from a baby's face. The U.S. National Library of Medicine says talcum-powder poisoning can occur when powder is inhaled.
Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson has said it will appeal the jury award.
"The recent U.S. verdict goes against decades of sound science proving the safety of talc as a cosmetic ingredient in multiple products, and while we sympathize with the family of the plaintiff, we strongly disagree with the outcome," spokeswoman Carol Goodrich told CNN.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865651583/Should-you-stop-using-baby-powder.html?pg=all
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Johnson & Johnson faces another ovarian cancer lawsuit in St Louis on April 11
Apr 7, 2016 | International Business Times
By Vittorio Hernandez
Two months after the landmark Missouri state jury award of $72 million (AUD$100 million) to the family of Alabama resident Jacqueline Fox, Johnson & Johnson is again facing another court on Monday. The April 11 trial before a St Louis circuit court is one of the over 1,000 lawsuits the multinational is facing over the charge by women that its talc powder causes ovarian cancer.
Bloomberg reports that after the Fox verdict, the family’s lawyers at Beasley Allen were deluged by 17,000 people who inquired about a possible lawsuit, of which the law firm is studying about 2,000 cases, plus 5,000 potential cases. The plaintiff in the Monday trial is Gloria Ristesund, a user of Johnson’s baby powder for 40 years, diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2011.
Next trial is that of 40-year-old Tenesha Farrar, diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer in 2013. Like Fox, Farrar is a black woman, the target of Johnson & Johnson’s marketing campaign to boost spending on talc powder for feminine hygiene.
The two, along with a lot of women, were taught since their childhood to place powder on their underwear to ensure they would smell fresh. Time explains that daily ritual is pact of “black women’s culture of self-care, one of the many ways we love and nurture bodies nobody else seems ready to pamper.”
A study by the George Washington University, which looked at vaginal douching, found that twice as many black women douched –using vaginal deodorisers and over-the-counter douches – compared to white women. The research discovered the products contain phthalates which has been linked to cancer. But that key ingredient was not listed on the products’ labels.
The pioneer study that first established a link between talc power use on the female genital and ovarian cancer was conducted in 1982 by Brigham & Women’s Hospital epidemiologist Daniel Cramer. Since the research was published in Cancer journal, more than 20 more epidemiological studies found higher risk of ovarian cancer by 33 percent on long-term perineal powder use.
But Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Carol Goodrich insists, “Jury verdicts should not be confused with regulatory rulings or rigorous scientific findings.” She stresses, “The overwhelming body of scientific research and clinical evidence supports the safety of cosmetic talc.”
Outside the baby powder, Johnson & Johnson’s flagship, the multinational had spent more than $5 billion (AUD$6.6 billion) to settle legal claims over its products since 2013. But for Cramer, a paid expert and witness for the Foxes, it is not a question of money for the multinational. “I think it was pride of ownership. Baby Powder is a signature product for J&J,” Cramer points out.
However, for Farrar and the thousands of other women whose health have been compromised as she had to undergo chemotherapy and full hysterectomy, “I will never use another J&J product again” is a vow should would not only keep but also pass on to her daughters and granddaughters.
http://www.ibtimes.com.au/johnson-johnson-faces-another-ovarian-cancer-lawsuit-st-louis-april-11-1511710
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Apr 7, 2016 | Ventures Africa
By Omono Eremionkhale
Following the recent opening of a Johnson and Johnson (J&J) outlet in South Africa, the United States drug giant is committed to expanding its reach even further to Kenya and Ghana. This is a move by the company to foster availability of its products to consumers on this side of the world. The chief executive of J&J, Alex Gorsky reveals that the expansion will boost development for the continent while also providing easy access to drugs for prevailing diseases on the continent like HIV/AIDS.
J&J is developing a long-acting HIV injectable drug alongside ViiV Healthcare, an AIDS therapy joint effort by GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. “Part of it is building those kinds of relationships, those kinds of capabilities that over the long term are going to result in a very significant market opportunity for us,” Gorsky said.
According to Fortune, Johnson & Johnson will increase drug distribution to local clinics and healthcare practitioners, and train them in fundamentals such as proper medication storage and medical testing.
However, while it is a great idea for J&J to be interested in being closer to Africans as a way of supplying the healthcare products they obviously need, it is a fact that other products by the company will be sold alongside the HIV/AIDS drugs. There have been reports that J&J may be profiting off the sale of talcum powder to black women (who do not know any better). As University of Texas Professor, Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley puts it in her TIME article from yesterday, J&J and other healthcare companies like it may be targeting black women’s bodies through the sale of talcum powder which has chemicals in it that could result in cancer.
In February 2016, the company paid $72 million in damages to the family of the late Jacqueline Fox, a black woman who battled with advanced ovarian cancer after years of using the company’s talcum powder to freshen her panties before wearing them. Like Tinsley says, for decades, companies, including Johnson & Johnson, continued marketing to encourage black women to spend money on talcum powder, which could cause cancer in our reproductive organs even as they promise to “freshen” them. Because buyers were women, they were the advertisers’ targets; because they were women, they were vulnerable to side effects the companies never exposed.
This is something to think about as the company seeks to expand its reach in Africa.
http://venturesafrica.com/african-women-johnson-and-johnson-continent/
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