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Talc External Dry-Run 9/8/2016
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J&J Hit With More Talcum Powder Ovarian Cancer Claims
Sep 7, 2016 | Law360
By Shayna Posses
A Louisiana woman became the latest to allege that Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder products caused her to develop ovarian cancer in a proposed class action filed in federal court Wednesday, days after a New Jersey state judge tossed two actions making similar claims. -
Ruling Could Help Johnson & Johnson in Baby Powder Cancer Suits, Report Says
Sep 7, 2016 | NJ.com
By Craig McCarthy
A New Jersey's judge's decision to throw out two women's lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson could help the health-care company in a number of other suits over its talcum powder, Bloomberg reports. -
Talcum Powder Unlikely to Have Killed Woman, Expert Says
Sep 7, 2016 | Irish Times
By Conor Pope
A leading respiratory consultant has said people should not be unduly alarmed by the findings of a Dublin inquest earlier this week, which linked the death of a woman to the ingestion of talcum powder.
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J&J Hit With More Talcum Powder Ovarian Cancer Claims
Sep 7, 2016 | Law360
By Shayna Posses
A Louisiana woman became the latest to allege that Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder products caused her to develop ovarian cancer in a proposed class action filed in federal court Wednesday, days after a New Jersey state judge tossed two actions making similar claims.
Shintelle Joseph joined the slew of consumers suing over J&J's talcum powder products, contending in her Louisiana federal court suit that the company touted the products as a safe and gentle way to reduce odor and moisture all over the body without warning about the risks of using talc in the genital area.
“Defendants have known, or should have known, that the products are unreasonably dangerous when used by a woman in her perineal area but have continued to design, manufacture, sell, distribute, market, promote, and supply the products so as to maximize sales and profits at the expense of public health and safety in conscious disregard of the foreseeable harm to the consuming public, including plaintiff,” the complaint says.
Other suits over J&J’s talc-based products have yielded mixed results. A Missouri state juryawarded $55 million to a woman in May who said she developed ovarian cancer following decades of using talc baby powder on her genitals, a second major defeat for the company after a jury handed down a $72 million verdict in a similar case in February.
But last week, Atlantic County Judge Nelson C. Johnson dismissed a pair of suits making similar claims after determining that the women’s expert witnesses offered lacking scientific evidence, failing to even explain how the presence of talc in the ovaries causes ovarian cancer.
Studies by one of those witnesses, Dr. Daniel Cramer, are among the more than a dozen studies highlighted in Joseph’s Wednesday complaint. According to the complaint, Cramer was involved in the first epidemiological study performed on talc powder use in the female genital area.
The 1982 study found a 92 percent increased risk of ovarian cancer in women who used talc in their genital area and the doctor recommended that J&J place a warning label on its talcum powders, the complaint says.
Since then, there have been about 22 additional epidemiological studies regarding the association between talc and ovarian cancer, nearly all of which have reported an increased risk of developing the disease associated with women's genital talc use, Joseph alleges.
After a 1993 study by the U.S. National Toxicology Program found talc to be a carcinogen, a trade group formed the Talc Interested Party Task Force, of which J&J was a member, the complaint says. In an effort to defend talc use and prevent regulation, the task force hired scientists to perform biased research, edited their reports and knowingly released false information to the public, the suit says.
Joseph contends that she started applying talcum powder and J&J’s Shower to Shower product to her genital area when she was about 17 years old, continuing for more than a decade before her ovarian cancer diagnosis.
She brings claims including negligence, fraud, strict liability, breach of express and implied warranty and violations of Louisiana consumer protection laws on behalf of all people and their spouses who have or will develop injuries due to talcum powder-based products.
Carol Goodrich, spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson Consumer, said in a Wednesday statement that they recognize that women and families affected by ovarian cancer are searching for answers and deeply sympathize with everyone affected by the disease.
"We are defending the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder because science, research, clinical evidence and decades of studies by medical experts around the world continue to support the safety of cosmetic talc," Goodrich said.
Joseph is represented by James R. Dugan II, Douglas R. Plymate, Lanson Bordelon and David Scalia of the Dugan Law Firm APLC.
Counsel information for J&J wasn’t immediately available.
The suit is Shintelle Joseph v. Johnson & Johnson et al., suit number 3:16-cv-00590, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.
--Editing by Kelly Duncan.http://www.law360.com/articles/837322/j-j-hit-with-more-talcum-powder-ovarian-cancer-claims-
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Ruling Could Help Johnson & Johnson in Baby Powder Cancer Suits, Report Says
Sep 7, 2016 | NJ.com
By Craig McCarthy
A New Jersey's judge's decision to throw out two women's lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson could help the health-care company in a number of other suits over its talcum powder, Bloomberg reports.
There are around 1,000 lawsuits pending against Johnson & Johnson that claim the company's talcum powder can lead to a greater risk of ovarian cancer.
Judge Nelson Johnson ruled in Atlantic City Friday that the two New Jersey women did not produce enough medical evidence to support their claims, according to Bloomberg.
There are close to 200 suits against Johnson & Johnson pending in New Jersey over the talcum powder.
The New Brunswick-based company lost a lawsuit in Missouri earlier this year and was ordered to pay out $72 million to the family of a woman who died of ovarian cancer. The cancer was linked to the use of Johnson & Johnson's talcum powered.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2016/09/ruling_could_help_johnson_johnson_in_baby_powder_c.html
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Talcum Powder Unlikely to Have Killed Woman, Expert Says
Sep 7, 2016 | Irish Times
By Conor Pope
A leading respiratory consultant has said people should not be unduly alarmed by the findings of a Dublin inquest earlier this week, which linked the death of a woman to the ingestion of talcum powder.
Dr Des Murphy, of Cork’s University College Hospital, told The Irish Times that the case was “most unusual” and he stressed that the death of 49-year-oldMalahide woman Therese Lawlor last year was almost certainly not as a result of the inhalation of talcum powder.
The woman died in April 2015 but had suffered ill health since a workplace accident in 1993.
At a hearing this week at the Dublin Coroner’s Court, it emerged that the most likely cause of death was exposure to talcum powder earlier in Ms Lawlor’s life.
The consultant pathologist Dr Munah Sabah told the court she had found needle-shaped silicate deposits in the woman’s spleen, liver and bone marrow during a postmortem examination.
She noted that foreign material circulating in the woman’s system had created pulmonary hypertension which lead to her death.
“This would appear to be a most unusual case,” Dr Murphy said.
“Talc can cause inhalation injuries in the lungs, but typically we would only see that in people who were exposed to it at a very high level, people working with it in confined spaces or mining it.”
Environmental factors such as mining were ruled out by the court.
Dr Murphy said the fact that there were silicate deposits found throughout the woman’s body and not only in her lungs suggested the talc had not been ingested through inhalation but had taken an intravenous route.
“In cases where talc has been inhaled, scarring tends to be confined to the lungs, but when we see what is known as disseminated talcosis, it typically means it was almost certainly absorbed by a route other than the lungs.”
oncerns
Laura Erskine, of parenting website mummypages.ie, said many parents had read reports of the inquest and become concerned about the potential dangers when using talcum powder as part of their babies’ hygiene routine.
However, she said the risks of talcum powder could be overstated and pointed out that the US Food and Drugs Administration had given it the green light.
However, she said that “many parents believe any risk, no matter how small, is not worth taking when it comes to the health of their children”, which she said explained why many parents were reluctant to use it “despite our nostalgia with the smell of baby powder”.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/talcum-powder-unlikely-to-have-killed-woman-expert-says-1.2783120
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