Plaintiffs in a baby powder cancer lawsuit say Johnson & Johnson failed to warn the public about a risk of cancer associated with talcum powder.

Plaintiffs Dolores C. and Josh K. have filed suit against Johnson & Johnson, the makers of talc-based products, Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower.

The couple attributes Dolores’s ovarian cancer to a failure by J&J and other defendants to issue a proper warning about a risk of ovarian cancer associated with use of talcum powder in the genital area.

According to this baby powder cancer lawsuit, Dolores was first exposed to the defendants’ talcum powders as an infant.

During her childhood, she says, her mother instructed her to apply baby powder all over her body and in her underwear to prevent odor – exactly as the defendants’ marketing had encouraged women to do, she claims.

Dolores says she was diagnosed with stage 3 ovarian cancer in May 2011. Her cancer has since gone into remission, but not until after she endured two rounds of surgery and nine rounds of chemotherapy.

Though today Dolores’s cancer is in remission, she says she lives with the effects of her previous illness and the chemotherapy used to treat it. She now suffers from “tremors, neuropathy, osteoarthritis, chemo brain, and a loss of her short term memory,” she says.

Due to these residuals, she says, her efforts to return to her prior career as a nurse and health care administrator have failed.

Baby Powder Cancer Lawsuit Alleges J&J Actively Concealed Risks

Dolores and Josh now say that, given the available scientific evidence, J&J and the other defendants were on notice that they were pushing a dangerous product for a dangerous use. The plaintiffs cite several scientific studies, one from as far back as 1971, that suggest an association between talc and ovarian cancer.

The plaintiffs say that since 1982, at least 20 different scientific studies have found higher rates of ovarian cancer among women who use talc-based hygiene products.

They say that one of those studies concluded that perineal use of talcum powder could be responsible for as many as 10 percent of the cases of ovarian cancer in the U.S.

Dolores and Josh say that the defendants had a duty to make themselves aware of the hazards associated with their products and to pass on that vital information to consumers in the form of appropriate warnings.

They argue the defendants not only failed to warn the public but also actively suppressed information about the relevant hazards from both the public and government regulators.

In fact, instead of responding to the scientific literature with a proper public warning, the plaintiffs say, J&J doubled down on marketing their talc-based products to women most likely to use talcum powder in their genital area.

Other defendants continued to advertise talc as being safe for human use, the baby powder cancer lawsuit alleges.

In addition to J&J, this baby powder cancer lawsuit names as defendants talc mining company Imerys Talc America, formerly known as Luzenac America Inc., and the Personal Care Products Council, formerly known as the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association.

The Baby Powder Cancer Lawsuit is Case No. 5:16-cv-06091 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.