A jury agreed that baby powder causing cancer led to a woman developing mesothelioma and awarded her $325 million in damages.

Former Brooklyn resident Donna O. and her husband filed a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson in 2017. They alleged Donna’s diagnosis of terminal mesothelioma was caused by her use of Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder that allegedly was contaminated with asbestos.

The jury awarded $25 million was in compensatory damages and an additional $300 million in punitive damages.

Donna was too ill to attend the trial, but her husband provided testimony.

“She always — it was her ritual. After shower, she would use the baby powder,’’ said Robert O. “The times I saw it, she would pour it on her hand, apply it to her chest and pour it on her hand and do her underarms.”

Robert said his wife finally stopped using baby powder in 2015 when she saw an ad on TV that talc use could be linked to cancer development. She was diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer in 2016, and she underwent the removal of a lung because of the disease.

J&J Denies Possibility of Baby Powder Causing Cancer

Johnson & Johnson has repeatedly denied that its talc-based baby powder products are tainted with asbestos and that baby powder causing cancer is not plausible.

Still, when talc is mined, ribbons of asbestos can be found running through talc deposits.

According to the American Cancer Society, “In its natural form, some talc contains asbestos, a substance known to cause cancers in and around the lungs when inhaled.”

Mesothelioma cancer is a cancer of the lining of an organ. The lining of the lungs is known as the pleura, and when that area develops cancer it is known as pleural mesothelioma and is the most common cancer of the lining of any organ. Most cases of pleural mesothelioma are the result of inhaling asbestos fibers that burrow deep in the lining of the lungs and fester for decades.

In December, Reuters released a report that indicated Johnson & Johnson had internal documents that acknowledged its raw talc and end-product powders did test positive for small amounts of asbestos at times from 1971 to the early 2000s. Reuters found old documents revealed that executives, mining management, scientists, doctors, lawyers, and others involved Johnson & Johnson’s operations worried about the positive results for asbestos contamination, but did not share the findings with regulatory bodies or the public.

Reuters said they found the very earliest indication that Johnson & Johnson’s talc was tainted with asbestos came from an outside lab in 1957 and 1958 that found fibers of tremolite, a type of asbestos marked by needle-like shapes, under a microscope.

Today, according to a report in Sel magazine, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists discourages women from using talcum powder products in the vaginal area, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends babies no longer be dusted with baby powder because, “If inhaled, talcum-containing powders can cause severe lung damage and breathing problems in babies.”