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Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder Cancer Settlement Overview:
- Who: A jury has awarded a 35-year-old woman with mesothelioma $26.5 million in her lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson.
- Why: The plaintiff accused Johnson & Johnson of contributing to her cancer by ignoring warnings about asbestos in its baby powder, which she was exposed to regularly during her childhood.
- Where: The trial played out in superior court in Northern California.
A California jury has awarded a 35-year-old woman with terminal cancer about $26.5 million in damages, in a trial where she accused Johnson & Johnson of making her sick through ignoring warnings about asbestos in its talc baby powder.
On Monday, a superior court jury in Alameda County decided in favor of plaintiff Christina Prudencio, who has a terminal case of malignant mesothelioma — a cancer of the thin tissue that lines the lung, chest wall, and abdomen.
The trial began over Zoom on June 15, Law360 reported.
After ruling in Prudencio’s favor, the jury awarded her $20 million for damages including pain and suffering, $4.1 million for lost past and future income, $1.57 million for lost household services and $800,000 for past medical costs, Law360 reported.
During the trial, Prudencio said Johnson & Johnson talcum powder had been used on her from birth until she was 16. After that, she continued to be exposed through the use of the product on her younger siblings.
Prudencio went on to become a preschool teacher and was studying for her master’s degree when she discovered she had cancer, her lawyers said. The illness forced her to stop working.
On her 34th birthday last year, Prudencio had surgery to try to remove the cancer. Her lawyers said Johnson & Johnson knew there was cancer-causing chrysotile asbestos in the talc as early as 1971, when a researcher alerted the company.
The product stayed on the market unchanged until 2020.
“A reasonable company, being told that, would stop, take the product off the marketplace. ‘Let’s study it; let’s look at it; let’s see if there’s really carcinogens in our product.’ That’s what a reasonable company does,” her lawyers reportedly told the jury.
However Johnson & Johnson’s lawyer told the jury that Prudencio’s malignant cancer is most likely a result of a gene mutation.
Johnson & Johnson is facing many claims that its product gave its consumers cancer.
In June, the company failed to convince the US Supreme Court to hear its appeal of a $2.1 billion verdict in a class action lawsuit that claimed talc in its baby powder products caused ovarian cancer.
The Supreme Court issued its order declining to hear the company’s appeal in the class action lawsuit originally filed in Missouri federal court.
In the case, the Johnson & Johnson baby powder class action lawsuit alleged that dozens of plaintiffs “bought and used Defendants’ [J&J] products in St. Louis City and later developed ovarian cancer.”
The plaintiffs accused the company of knowingly marketed and sold a product that increases consumers’ risk of ovarian cancer.
Have you used Johnson & Johnson baby powder products? Tell us about your experience in the comment section below!
Prudencio is represented by Joseph Satterley of Kazan McClain Satterley & Greenwood.
The Johnson & Johnson Prudencio Cancer Lawsuit is Christina Prudencio v. Johnson & Johnson, Case No. RG20061303, in the Superior Court of California, Alameda County.
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17 thoughts onJury Awards $26.5M to Cancer Patient Suing Johnson & Johnson Over Baby Powder
I want to respond to Melissa Cuevas, I too got rectal cancer and three months later I was told I had stage 4 cancer due to they found it in my right pelvic interior iliac lymph node after I had a full body scan after my rectal surgery so my oncologists are not only baffled but cant confirm where it was first. I have used this product daily sometimes two times a day all over my entire body including my private areas because I loved the soft smell of the powder. I am saddened for all that have had the challenge of dealing with this. No one understands how healthy you live your life to only then find out that this company apparently knew this would essentially happen one day. Please add me to this suit.
Add me
Add me please
PLEASE ADD ME
Please add me
please add me .,i have always used Johnson and Johnson on my private areas front and back for years i was told i had colon cancer ., it was caused by Johnson and Johnson talcum powder