A New York woman has added her own baby powder injury lawsuit to a multidistrict litigation addressing the link between talcum products and ovarian cancer.

Plaintiff Kelly H. says that from 1992 through 2015, she used Shower to Shower and Johnson’s Baby Powder for personal care. Both those products are talc-based body powders marketed by defendant Johnson & Johnson.

Kelly says she was diagnosed with a talcum powder injury in February 2007, while she was living in Las Vegas. While her baby powder injury lawsuit does not specify what her diagnosed injury was, other plaintiffs in thousands of similar claims allege a link between J&J’s talc-based products and their later development of ovarian cancer.

Baby Powder Injury Lawsuit Joins Federal MDL

Kelly’s baby powder injury lawsuit is part of a multidistrict litigation, or MDL. An MDL is a collection of similar legal claims that have been consolidated together in a single court, in the interest of conducting more efficient pretrial procedures.

The talcum powder cancer MDL was created in October 2016 by an order of the federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. The panel combined a total of 54 known baby powder injury lawsuits in the federal court system to a district court in New Jersey, where their pretrial procedures will be overseen by U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson.

These plaintiffs claim Johnson & Johnson and other defendants in the talc industry failed to issue proper warnings about the dangers associated with their talc-based products. The plaintiffs further accuse J&J, talc supplier Imerys Talc America, and industry organization Personal Care Products Council of actively conspiring to conceal evidence of the link between talcum powder and the risk of ovarian cancer.

Plaintiffs refer to dozens of scientific studies conducted over the last several decades. These studies suggest that women who use talcum powder near their genital area face a significantly higher risk of developing ovarian cancer.

As early as 1971, British researchers reported finding particles of talc embedded in samples of ovarian cancer tissue. Then in 1982, a study by researchers from Harvard concluded that genital use of talcum powder was linked to a 92 percent increase in the risk of ovarian cancer.

Since then, dozens of other studies have been conducted. While results vary, many subsequent studies also found a statistically significant correlation between the use of talcum powder in the genital area and the later development of cancer.

Issue Generates Thousands of State and Federal Claims

Outside the federal MDL, thousands of other baby powder injury lawsuits are going on in state courts.

At least 2,000 such cases are pending in a mass tort action in a Missouri state court in St. Louis. Three of those cases that have already gone to trial have resulted in multi-million dollar verdicts for the plaintiffs.

Kelly’s Baby Powder Injury Lawsuit is Case No. 3:17-cv-01660. It’s part of the Talcum Powder Cancer MDL, In re: Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Products Marketing, Sales Practices, and Product Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2738, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.