J&J Faces Talcum Powder Lawsuit in UK by More Than 3,000 Plaintiffs

J&J Faces Talcum Powder Lawsuit in UK by More Than 3,000 Plaintiffs

Already facing tens of thousands of Baby Powder lawsuits and Shower-to-Shower lawsuits in the U.S., Johnson & Johnson has now been named in a complaint representing thousands of plaintiffs in the United Kingdom for similar cancer injuries.

More than 90,000 product liability lawsuits filed in the U.S. allege that Johnson & Johnson sold talcum powder products contaminated with asbestos for decades yet refused to warn women not to use the powder on their genitals. In fact, lawsuits allege the company encouraged the practice.

The U.S. litigation has been ongoing since 2016, and has already resulted in a number of massive jury verdicts that ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay billions in damages to certain women, for placing profits before consumer safety, by withholding information about the known risks associated with their popular products.

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Rumblings about a large U.K. talcum powder lawsuit being put together began several years ago, with talcum powder lawyers in the U.K. first announcing plans to pursue a large group claim in November 2022.

That lawsuit was finally filed on October 14 in London’s High Court, representing more than 3,000 plaintiffs who allege that Johnson & Johnson sold talc products in the U.K. that it knew contained asbestos. Plaintiffs include individuals who suffered either ovarian cancer or mesothelioma after regular talcum powder use for five years or more between 1965 and 2023, when the company globally switched to using cornstarch.

That same year, Johnson & Johnson spun off its consumer health branch into a separate company called Kenvue. Both companies are named in the U.K. lawsuit. Johnson & Johnson claims that liability for the talcum powder cancer claims now lies with Kenvue.

Kenvue officials continue to claim that the talc-based products were safe and did not cause cancer.

However, the lawsuit came just days after its parent company was hit with a $966 million verdict by a California jury, following a trial over a claim that a woman died of mesothelioma in 2021 due to the presence of asbestos particles in the talc products. In addition, the company issued a massive Baby Powder recall in October 2019, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined some bottles were contaminated with chrysotile asbestos in bottles.

U.S. Talcum Powder Lawsuits

In the U.S., three separate talcum powder bellwether trials are preparing to go to trial in California. The first of the three trials will begin on November 3 and is expected to last about four weeks. It will immediately be followed by two other similar trials.

All talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits filed at the federal level are centralized in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, where U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp is leading the litigation through pretrial proceedings in preparation for federal bellwether trials.

The first federal bellwether trial is expected to begin late this year or early next year, involving a talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuit brought by Carter Judkins, who was diagnosed in December 2016, after using Johnson’s Baby Powder as part of her daily routine for more than 30 years.

There are also other trials scheduled for next year in New Jersey and Pennsylvania state courts.

While the outcomes of these bellwether trials will not be binding on other plaintiffs, they will be closely watched by lawyers involved in the litigation. If the parties still fail to reach a resolution after the bellwether trials, dozens of individual cases may begin moving forward simultaneously in different courts in the coming years.


Written By: Irvin Jackson

Senior Legal Journalist & Contributing Editor

Irvin Jackson is a senior investigative reporter at AboutLawsuits.com with more than 30 years of experience covering mass tort litigation, environmental policy, and consumer safety. He previously served as Associate Editor at Inside the EPA and contributes original reporting on product liability lawsuits, regulatory failures, and nationwide litigation trends.




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