A Florida woman recently added a new lawsuit to the growing litigation being filed over the connection between talc powder and ovarian cancer.

The plaintiff, Melissa L., alleges that her longtime use of talc powder products from Johnson & Johnson led to her ovarian cancer diagnosis in October 2006.

According to the lawsuit, Melissa used talcum powder from around 1989 through 2007. At that point, Melissa recognized the potential connection between her use of talc powder and ovarian cancer, and stopped using the product.

Not only did this use of talc powder lead to her ovarian cancer diagnosis and related injuries, but also to substantial economic loss.

The lawsuit was filed on Aug. 18 in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on multiple counts, including failure to warn, defective design, breach of express and implied warranties, negligence, and several others.

Talc Powder and Ovarian Cancer Link

Talc baby powder, including products such as Johnson & Johnson’s popular Shower to Shower baby powder, has been a widely used product for decades. Although baby powder is primarily used for babies to prevent diaper rash, it is also commonly marketed as a feminine hygiene product.

Johnson & Johnson has actively encouraged consumers to use its talc powder products regularly for personal hygiene purposes, including in the genital area.

While the company has marketed its talc baby powder as safe and effective for this use, lawsuits claim that Johnson & Johnson was either misrepresenting or outright deceiving customers regarding the actual safety of talc powder as a hygiene product, concealing some rather serious risks.

Generations of women have used these kinds of baby powder products as part of their daily routines for, in many cases, decades, so a link between talc powder and ovarian cancer could prove deadly for thousands.

Ovarian Cancer

Because there are few early symptoms of ovarian cancer, this disease—the fifth leading cause of cancer death for women in the U.S.—is usually not discovered until much later, in the last stages of the cancer, which makes this baby powder side effect even more dangerous.

Once a patient has progressed into the later stages of cancer, any possible treatment will become much less effective, and the fatality rate soars.

Filing a Talc Baby Powder Lawsuit

If you or someone you love has used Johnson & Johnson’s Shower to Shower or a similar talc powder product, especially as part of a regular hygiene routine, and have since been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, you may be able to file a baby powder lawsuit. Plaintiffs raising claims like these allege that Johnson & Johnson failed to warn consumers about the link between talc powder and ovarian cancer.

While filing a baby powder lawsuit cannot take away the pain and suffering of a patient suffering from ovarian cancer and cannot bring a loved one back to life, it can help to alleviate the financial burden caused by medical expenses and lost wages.