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J&J Talc 4/11
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Plaintiff Turns Down $1.3 Million to Settle Talcum Powder Lawsuit
Apr 9, 2016 | Digital Journal
By Claudio Buttice
Diane Berg, the first plaintiff that filed a federal lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson accusing it of being responsible for her ovarian cancer, refused $1.3 million to settle down her case before the trial began. -
Rising Star: Beasley Allen's Danielle Mason
Apr 8, 2016 | Law360
By Jeff Overley
Danielle W. Mason of Beasley Allen Crow Methvin Portis & Miles PC blazed a new litigation trail by securing a $72 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson over a cancer death linked to talcum powder, placing her among Law360’s top life sciences lawyers under 40. -
Offering 4-Year Degrees at SC4 is a Good Idea
Apr 10, 2016 | The Times Herald
...“I was just seeing that the lawyers on TV are saying if you use Johnson & Johnson’s products and have cancer, call them. -
The Stench of Racism, Still Dictates Self Image in 'Black' Women
Apr 10, 2016 | The News Hub
By Emunah Y'srael
...Fox sued Johnson & Johnson ‘A family company’ and won a law suit to the tune of $ 72 million dollars. -
How J&J Markets Cancerous Talcum Powder to Black Women
Apr 8, 2016 | Tele SUR
...Just last month Johnson and Johnson has been ordered by a U.S. court to pay US$72 million in damages to the family of a Black woman whose death from ovarian cancer was linked to her use of the company's talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for several decades. -
Be Skin Safe This Scorching Summer
Apr 9, 2016 | New Indian Express
By Rupamudra Kataki
While Johnson & Johnson is gearing up to dust out with a heavy compensation for damages its powder caused in the US, Proctor & Gamble may meet the same fate.
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Plaintiff Turns Down $1.3 Million to Settle Talcum Powder Lawsuit
Apr 9, 2016 | Digital Journal
By Claudio Buttice
Diane Berg, the first plaintiff that filed a federal lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson accusing it of being responsible for her ovarian cancer, refused $1.3 million to settle down her case before the trial began.\
The woman was the first plaintiff to file a litigation against the pharmaceutical giant back in 2009, and her case was the first one that went to trial in the United States. According to the New York Post, Berg was offered an out of court settlement of $1.3 million, although the woman refused it. "It was never about the money," she said during an interview, explaining that she didn’t want to sign a confidentiality clause that would prevent her from warning the rest of the world about the alleged dangers associated with the baby talcum powder.
The jury confirmed that the J&J contributed to an ovarian cancer she was diagnosed with in 2016, although they did not award her with any compensation. The family of Jacqueline Fox, another woman who died because of this same cancer in October 2015, was awarded $72 million in compensation. A St. Louis jury held Johnson & Johnson liable for negligence, conspiracy, and failure to warn women about the increased risk of cancer associated with using Baby Powder in the genital area.
Plaintiffs who filed a Talcum powder lawsuit claim that exposure to the talc found in cosmetic products such as baby and adult powders, may have been the reason they developed cancer in later years. According to their accusations, Johnson and Johnson intentionally hide all the evidence they had in their hands about a potential link between talcum powder and increased cancer risk. For more than 40 years, the manufacturer decided not to warn women about the risks and kept selling their products to adults as well as babies.
A large controversy surrounds the question of whether talc may increase the risk of cancer, but epidemiologic evidence found a correlation. Ovarian cancer risk, in particular, seems to be increased by 30–60 percent when the talcum powder enters the ovaries through the external genitalia after being applied on sanitary napkins, condoms, and other birth control devices.
The real mechanism of action through which talcum powder may increase the risk of cancer is still unknown, although it has been suggested thatchronic inflammation plays a substantial role in carcinogenesis. Carcinogenicity has also been linked with the talc natural similarities with asbestos or potential contamination due to their environmental co-occurrence. However, even asbestos-free products seemingly showed an increased risk of cancer.
Since 1999, the American Cancer Society suggested that cornstarch products are a good alternative for the genital area, and the same J&J now produces a safer cornstarch-based surrogate which is sold at the same price.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/life/health/plaintiff-turns-down-1-3-million-to-settle-talcum-powder-lawsuit/article/462431
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Rising Star: Beasley Allen's Danielle Mason
Apr 8, 2016 | Law360
By Jeff Overley
Danielle W. Mason of Beasley Allen Crow Methvin Portis & Miles PC blazed a new litigation trail by securing a $72 million verdict againstJohnson & Johnson over a cancer death linked to talcum powder, placing her among Law360’s top life sciences lawyers under 40.
The 38-year-old attorney, a newcomer to Law 360's Rising Stars list, has specialized in drug and device litigation since joining Beasley Allen in 2009. She made big marks even beforethe J&J verdict in February, and last year became the first African-American woman to make partner at Beasley Allen since the Alabama firm’s founding in 1979.
“Obviously, it’s always a great thing when you are given a distinction that no one else like you has had before,” Mason said. “It means to me that I have worked hard and proven myself.”
Some of Mason’s most prominent experience has involved injuries allegedly caused by generic versions of digestion drug Reglan, or metoclopramide, which has been linked to a nervous system disorder called tardive dyskinesia. She’s representing about 30 clients in suits that target Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Allergan Inc. unit Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Pfizer Inc. unit Hospira Inc., among others.
A central challenge is finding a way around the U.S. Supreme Court’s momentous 2011 decision in Pliva v. Mensing, which shielded generic-drug makers from failure-to-warn liability. Options include different legal theories, congressional action or regulatory changes allowing generics makers to unilaterally update their warning labels.
“It’s still a battle that we’re fighting,” Mason said. “We’re fighting it on a lot of different planes.”
She added that her clients are “always open to settlement and still working toward that end.”
Previously, Mason also had a hand in high-profile litigation centered on injuries involving transvaginal mesh implants and cancer cases tied to hormone replacement therapies. But it’s the J&J win that has sent her profile soaring.
Mason started mining the connection between talc and ovarian cancer in 2013, when a South Dakota jury found J&J liable for not warning of risks but didn’t award any damages. Her firm began taking out advertisements asking consumers to contact the firm if they had used talcum powder and been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and thousands of calls came pouring in.
More than 1,000 cases have now been filed in St. Louis city court, creating a situation akin to multidistrict litigation at the federal court level. As with MDLs, bellwether trials are getting under way, and the first took place in February.
That trial involved the late Jacqueline Fox, who died in late 2015 of ovarian cancer that she blamed on her use of J&J baby powder for 35 years. Although Fox died before trial, Mason was able to play recordings of Fox’s deposition testimony before the jury, and she called it a gut-wrenching moment in the courtroom.
“Just hearing her voice — there wasn’t a dry eye in the room,” Mason said.
After four hours of deliberations, the nine-woman, three-man jury ordered J&J to pay $10 million in compensatory damages and $62 million in punitive damages. The outcome received heavy media attention, encouraging Beasley Allen’s team even more.
“I feel like what we’re doing is helping because we’re really getting the word out,” Mason said.
The verdict was a major breakthrough, but it also came in a case that Beasley Allen selected for its strong facts. The next case — which is just now getting under way — will be chosen from the pool of suits by J&J.
There are additional trials expected until early 2017. Because things are in their early stages, and because talcum powder has been widely used for decades, it’s possible that cases could play out for years to come, Mason said.
And if that happens, it could underscore what Mason said she values most about product liability litigation: its goal of ensuring that everyday goods are safe for Americans to use.
“It’s highly rewarding,” she said, “in the sense that we are making change on a large scale.”http://www.law360.com/articles/780549/rising-star-beasley-allen-s-danielle-mason
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Offering 4-Year Degrees at SC4 is a Good Idea
Apr 10, 2016 | The Times Herald
•No Name: “I think it’s a good idea to offer certain four-year degrees, like nursing, through SC4. Maybe if everybody called Sen. Pavlov he would help push this to happen. Let’s take care of some of the smaller colleges instead of these big colleges.”
•Joan from Port Huron: “Instead of paying $75,000 to build SMG an office, put it toward schools. I’m sure there are many other mis-spendings that could do the same.”
•Brian from Clyde: “The county needs to build SMG an office in the convention center? Why? They haven’t made McMorran any more money. So you reward them by building them an office on the riverfront at the convention center?”
•Burtchville Resident: “I live on Burtch Road. Tandem trucks loaded are going west from early morning until late afternoon. Where are they going and for what purpose? How long is this going to last? I am afraid of road damage. Burtch Road is pretty good right now.”
•Sam from Kimball Township: “About the millionaire Gov. Snyder and his legal fees. Regardless of how many millions he has, why should taxpayers of Michigan have to pay for his legal fees? He is the one who made the mistake. Michigan is being run by a corrupt, majority Republican party and the Times Herald is protecting them.”
•Marysville Resident: “Where can I find a petition to sign to recall Gov. Snyder?”
•No Name: “Courser and Gamrat are going to sue the state for violating their rights. How did Republicans let these two people get into the election system? This is ridiculous. I’ve never seen two more misguided — that’s being nice — people in my life. They should be kicked out of the state of Michigan.”
•No Name: “I was just seeing that the lawyers on TV are saying if you use Johnson & Johnson’s products and have cancer, call them. Well I am sure Johnson & Johnson’s does other name products, because I work for a brand-name pickle company for over 20 years and we did different companies’ pickles. The pickles were the same, the jars were the same, the brine was the same. The only thing different was the lids and the labels. So what other companies do Johnson & Johnson’s do? I think people would like to know in case they got cancer.”
Thanks for the heads-up on the pickles. The Johnson & Johnson baby powder lawsuit is probably the reverse of what you’re talking about. All the talcum powder, no matter who’s selling it, comes from the same handful of mines and none of it should be sprinkled on your bottom.
•Beverly: “This is to John and No Name who think Donald Trump has a plan to correct the national debt. Last night on the news, there’s his daughter. She has a fashion line of clothing that’s manufactured in China. And it’s not passing safety regulations here in the United States. Good luck, you too.”
http://www.thetimesherald.com/story/opinion/readers/talk-back/2016/04/10/offering-year-degrees-sc-good-idea/82862952/
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The Stench of Racism, Still Dictates Self Image in 'Black' Women
Apr 10, 2016 | The News Hub
By Emunah Y'srael
The culture of smelling good reaches back into antiquity. Costly processes dictated high prices, the aromatic smells of rare flowers mingled with the alluring frankincense and myrrh permeated the air of the ancient world. In cultures such as the Ancient Egyptians daily cleansing was paramount.Egyptian women wore incense cones on their heads for the purpose of flowering the air. Ancient Israelites wrote of perfumed beds, sweet smells and bathing often.
If olfactory correctness has always been a part of advanced ‘black’ cultures, when did things change? How did ‘black’ become automatically associated with being dirty, bad hygiene and offensive stench?
Thomas Jefferson's work now cited in Notes on the State of Virginia States this about slaves.
“It will probably be asked, Why not retain and incorporate the blacks into the state, and thus save the expense of supplying, by importation of white settlers, the vacancies they will leave? Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the real distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances, will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions which will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other race.--To these objections, which are political, may be added others, which are physical and moral."
Jefferson goes on to speak about color differences between ‘black’ and ‘white.’ His objections and opinions mingled pseudo-science and personal bias. When referring to the physical differences between ‘black’ and ‘white’ people he states:
“They secrete less by the kidnies, and more by the glands of the skin, which gives them a very strong and disagreeable odour. This greater degree of transpiration renders them more tolerant of heat, and less so of cold, than the whites.”
Later on in his writing he says,
“To our reproach it must be said, that though for a century and a half we have had under our eyes the races of black and of red men, they have never yet been viewed by us as subjects of natural history. I advance it therefore as a suspicion only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.” –Thomas Jefferson
Was society influencing Jefferson or did he birth these ideas on his own? Did ‘whites’ discuss the odious smell of their ‘black’ slaves over tea and crumpets? I can only image the dinner conversation in a time where political correctness was but a zygote in the minds of anti-slavery advocates.
Social commentaries such as the one just noted served to further the physiological damage and trauma inflicted on the minds of the oppressed. The self-image of the slave shaped by the reproach of their master. InFrances Anne Kemble’s book Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantationwe see a ‘white’ woman from England expressing similar sentiments to that of Thomas Jefferson.
When first meeting an enslaved women she notes, “Here I encountered the first slave I ever saw, and the sight of them in no way tended to alter my previous opinions upon this subject. They were poorly clothed; looked horribly dirty,”
In the same chapter she recounts, “I am amused to observe that while our tea was poured out, and handed us by a black girl of most disgustingly dirty appearance,”
And as if she did not note their physical conditions several time before within the same correspondence she further describes her waiting maid as“one of the dirty black girls who were running to and fro serving the breakfast room.”
Imagine if you were that enslaved women in the midst of this conversation. Your body odor being the subject of public scrutiny and ridicule. The ‘black’ enslaved population as noted in Jefferson's account became the case study. The 'blacks' are the problem that needs an effective yet lucrative solution.
'Black’ women today are statistically noted as the primary decision makers for health and beauty practices instituted within their home. This reality targets her and makes her vulnerable for mis-education and exploitation. The consumer numbers show that she can still hear the voices of the ‘white’ master and mistresses. You stink, you’re dirty and you private parts reek.
One such internal dialogue played out in the life of late Jaqueline Fox. Fox sued Johnson & Johnson ‘A family company’ and won a law suit to the tune of $ 72 million dollars. She testified that the use of her baby powder practices stem from a family tradition. Fox had been sprinkling Baby Powder made from talc on her underwear every day since she was a teen. “I was raised up on it,” Fox said. “They was to help you stay fresh and clean. We women have to take care of ourselves,” she continued.
I agree taking care of the body is essential to a good quality of life. However, it should also be noted that ‘black’ women need to look at the culture from which their current beauty practices have emerged. Feminine hygiene is an important subject, one that must include a holistic approach.https://www.the-newshub.com/fashion-and-beauty/the-stench-of-racism-still-dictates-self-image-in-black-women
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How J&J Markets Cancerous Talcum Powder to Black Women
Apr 8, 2016 | Tele SUR
An analysis by Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley, associate professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, lays out how Johnson and Johnson is taking advantage of the beauty rituals of African-American women.
Just last month Johnson and Johnson has been ordered by a U.S. court to pay US$72 million in damages to the family of a Black woman whose death from ovarian cancer was linked to her use of the company's talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for several decades.
According to Tinsley, the company takes advantage of Black Women's beauty habits which are different from those of white women.
“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,” says Tinsley.
“Every morning for almost 40 years, Jacqueline Fox sprinkled baby powder into her panties before she put them on. She explained that she “was raised up on it”. Only after being diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer in 2013, did she learn talcum powder could be a possible carcinogen.”
According to a company memo years ago, the company knew about the potential cancer risks, failed to put warnings on talcum-based products and simultaneously recommended more aggressive marketing to Black women.
Tinsley explains that Black women use vaginal products more often than white women do because historically “a clean and odor-free body signified personal progress and enterprise, and the hope for racial assimilation”.
“[Johnson and Johnson] are 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 powder, which could cause cancer in our reproductive organs even as they promise to 'freshen' them."
In the case of Fox, jurors found Johnson & Johnson liable for fraud, negligence and conspiracy, the family's lawyers said. Deliberations lasted four hours, following a three-week trial.
About 1,000 cases have been filed in Missouri state court, and another 200 in New Jersey.
http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/How-JJ-Markets-Cancerous-Talcum-Powder-to-Black-Women-20160408-0051.html
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Be Skin Safe This Scorching Summer
Apr 9, 2016 | New Indian Express
By Rupamudra Kataki
While Johnson & Johnson is gearing up to dust out with a heavy compensation for damages its powder caused in the US, Proctor & Gamble may meet the same fate. More than 100 men in the US have filed a class action lawsuit against one of its flagship products, Old Spice, claiming that its deodorants have made them break out in painful rashes.
In India, Rakshanda Khan frantically searched for a salve to soothe the angry inflamed skin on her face. The 24-year-old call centre executive blamed the toner she recently used to take respite from the summer heat. “I normally use a toner during summers as it helps control my oily complexion. A few weeks ago I bought a new toner, which made my skin sensitive, after using it for a few days. The doctors said my skin reacted to the alcohol in it,” says the Delhi resident.
Summer is here, and with it comes an array of products that promise to bring relief from the angry heat. Be it talcum powders or face wash, there are products with tall claims like ‘thanda thanda cool cool’ and promises to cure prickly heat with an instant dusting of its powder. But before buying skincare products this summer, think twice about the hidden threats these smart advertisements otherwise do not highlight.
With the recent baby powder lawsuit, one hardly needs to elaborate why it is not a good idea to enjoy a liberal dusting of talcum powder. However, if you find it difficult to get over this obsession, start looking for a powder that does not contain asbestos. “The genital dusting powder after repeated and prolonged use are found to be associated with ovarian cancer. Asbestos-based powders are linked to ovarian and lung cancers. It should be asbestos free,” says Dr Sunil Sanghi, Senior Consultant, Dermatology, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurgaon.
Very few, especially whose job involves travelling, can deny the comfort of convenience that face wipes bring during the sweltering heat. Again, baby wipes are perhaps the best invention for busy parents. But as tempting as these may be, wipes are not completely safe for the skin. “Face wipes or baby wipes contain the infamous methylisothiazolinone (MI) in increased concentration, leading to persistent dermatitis and certain preservatives causing allergic reactions. People should check for MI and paraben before using these,” says Sanghi.
It is very difficult to resist the temptation to cleanse or wash one’s face as the heat mounts. Supriya Shankar, a college student, keeps a bottle of face wash in her bag and makes it a point to cleanse her face after she reaches college. “I wash my face more frequently during summers to keep it oil-free and fresh,” says Shankar. But excessive cleansing can lead to dryness and allergic reaction if the face wash contains sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS), a foaming agent. SLS is not only an irritant to the skin, when exposed extensively it may also be harmful for eyes. It’s best advised to look for a cleaser that is SLS and paraben-free.
Deodorants and anti-perspirants contain fragrance and parabens that may cause allergic reactions such as severe skin rashes and dermatitis. “Due to frequent use, some of them have some association with breast cancer, though no definite evidence is available. Fragrance is the most common cause of allergic contact dermatitis,” says Sanghi.
Bitter Taste
Powder contains asbestos that is linked to ovarian and lung cancers
Face wipes or baby wipes contain methylisothiazolinone that lead to persistent dermatitis
Deodorants contain fragrance and parabens that causes allergic reaction such as severe skin rashes and dermatitis
Face washes with sodium lauryl sulphate, a foaming agent, cause skin irritation and are harmful for eyes
http://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/health/Be-Skin-Safe-This-Scorching-Summer/2016/04/09/article3367750.ece
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