Talcum Powder Lawsuits

Johnson’s Baby Powder, Shower to Shower and other talcum powder products may increase the risk of ovarian cancer. Lawsuits are being pursued by women throughout the U.S.

Talcum Powder Lawsuit Overview

Thousands of women throughout the United States may have developed ovarian cancer from side effects of talcum powder. Lawsuits are being investigated over allegedly inadequate warnings provided by manufacturers who sell talcum-based products under various different names, including Baby Powder, Body Powder and Talc Powder.

Talcum powder is derived from talc, which is a hydrated magnesium silicate. It is used for a multitude of purposes and is in many, if not most, U.S. households in some form or another.

While it is most commonly known as Baby Powder, used to prevent or treat rashes, many women also talc powder for personal hygiene and cosmetics. As a result, many different products are also marketed as body powder, such as “Shower to Shower” and other brand names.

Talc contained in many of these powders is a mineral composed of hydrated magnesium silicate. While talcum powder is generally recognized as safe, some types of talc have been found to contain asbestos fibers, which may pose serious and potentially life-threatening health concerns when used for feminine hygiene.

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2025 Talcum Powder Lawsuit Updates

Product liability lawyers are reviewing potential talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuits for women throughout the United States. Several cases have already been successful at trial against Johnson & Johnson over failure to warn about the risk of ovarian cancer, with one resulting in a $2.1 billion verdict which was later upheld by the Supreme Court. While the litigation had been on pause as Johnson & Johnson attempted to try a controversial bankruptcy filing, an early 2023 federal appeals court decision is likely to result in the cases moving through pretrial proceedings once again.

January 1, 2025 Update: In light of increasing concerns about the potential harms of asbestos exposure through cosmetics, the FDA has proposed a new rule would make it mandatory that talc-containing cosmetic products be tested for asbestos using both Polarized Light Microscopy (PLM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TRM)/Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS)/Selected Area Electron Diffraction (SAED).

November 1, 2024 Update: In September, as part of an $8 billion talcum powder lawsuit settlement offer, Johnson & Johnson created a new subsidiary known as Red River Talc LLC, and transferred all liabilities it faced for failing to warn about the talcum powder cancer risks to this new entity, which then filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

April 24, 2024 Update: A Chicago jury reached a $45 million verdict in a Talcum powder lawsuit brought by the family of Theresa Garcia, who died of mesothelioma in 2020.  The family claimed that the cancer was caused by Garcia’s regular use of Johnson’s Baby Powder, and accused the manufacturer of knowing that the talcum powder was tainted with asbestos for decades.

April 2, 2024 Update: Judge Shipp granted the manufacturer the opportunity to challenge the plaintiff’s expert testimony again, citing recent updates to federal evidence rules and new scientific developments as reasons for allowing a complete refiling of Daubert motions. A deadline for filing Daubert motions has been set for July 23, 2024, and for oppositions by August 22, 2024.

March 6, 2024 Update: A Florida judge has declared a mistrial in the first talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuit to go before a jury since a two-year stay on all litigation was lifted, after the jury was unable to agree on whether Johnson & Johnson should be held liable for failing to warn about the cancer risks associated with their widely used products. Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge William Thomas has stated that he will schedule a retrial of the case next month.

January 11, 2024 Update: On January 11, 2024, Johnson & Johnson announced it had reached a $700 million talcum powder lawsuit settlement agreement to resolve claims filed by dozens of states, who say the company failed to disclose that talcum powder products were contaminated with asbestos particles.

2023 Talcum Powder Cancer Lawsuit Update: On January 30, 2023, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Johnson & Johnson’s bid for bankruptcy, indicating the petition had been filed for the express purpose of Johnson & Johnson attempting to reduce its liability when the company was in no financial distress despite likely facing billions of dollars in legal costs and settlement agreements to resolve the claims.

In late May, U.S. District Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan ordered parties to resume talcum powder lawsuit settlement negotiations after Johnson & Johnson’s LTL Management subsidiary again declared bankruptcy as part of a controversial $8.9 million settlement offer. However, in late July, Judge Kaplan again dismissed Johnson & Johnson’s bankruptcy filing, determining the company had again failed to file in good faith. A stay on the litigation was then lifted and cases are again proceeding toward talcum powder bellwether test trials.

In October, as thousands of new claims were filed, Johnson & Johnson told its investors that the company is contemplating a third talcum powder lawsuit bankruptcy attempt.

2022 Talcum Powder Cancer Lawsuit Update: With Johnson & Johnson facing more than 38,000 claims, plaintiffs have challenged its controversial “Texas Two-Step” bankruptcy scheme in the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The court will soon decide whether it can use the bankruptcy plan to shield the main company from litigation, and keep tens of thousands of claims on hold until the bankruptcy proceedings are completed.

TALC Powder Ovarian Cancer Risks

Concerns over the potential link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer has been suspected for decades. However, the manufacturers have sold talc body powder as a safe product, withholding important safety information from consumers.

As early as 1971, researchers found talc embedded in 75% of all ovarian tumors researchers studied. In addition, several studies and reports have confirmed that talc applied to a woman’s genital area may travel through the vagina and into the uterus, fallopian tubes and ovaries.

In June 2013, a study published in the medical journal Cancer Prevention Research found that women who used talcum body powder as a feminine hygiene produce may face a 20% to 30% greater risk of ovarian cancer compared to those who do not apply talc.

In addition to ovarian cancer, several recent studies have suggested that talcum powder may have similar effects to asbestos and could cause mesothelioma. A November 2018 report indicated that internal memos within Johnson & Johnson revealed the company knew about the potential asbestos problem since at least the 1950s.

In October 2019, the FDA announced it had discovered asbestos in Johnson’s Baby Powder, resulting in a recall of 33,000 bottles sold at major pharmacies nationwide. It is the first recall in the product’s history, according to Johnson & Johnson.

As a result of Johnson & Johnson’s and other manufacturers’ failure to disclose the potential ovarian cancer risks women may face, financial compensation may be available through a talcum powder lawsuit or settlement.

Talcum Power Cancer Litigation

Johnson & Johnson has faced tens of thousands of talcum powder cancer and asbestos exposure lawsuits as the litigation grew rapidly over the last few years. The cases were centralized in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey since 2016 under U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson. However, Judge Wolfson retired at the beginning of February 2022, and the cases were transferred to U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp, still in New Jersey.

Early in the pretrial proceedings Johnson & Johnson attempted to exclude plaintiffs’ expert witness testimony under the federal Daubert standard. However, in 2020 Judge Wolfson rejected that argument, clearing the way for tens of thousands of individual cases to move forward toward trial.

Since the multidistrict litigation was formed and moved through pretrial proceedings, Johnson & Johnson has faced numerous trials in state courts. While it won some cases, the company was slammed repeatedly by juries nationwide for tens of millions, and in some cases, billions of dollars.

In February 2016, a jury awarded $72 million in damages to the family of a woman who died from ovarian cancer, and a separate jury awarded $55 million in another talc ovarian cancer in May 2016, involving a woman who developed ovarian cancer following decades of using the popular products. Another verdict of $70 million in damages was awarded in October 2016 in a similar case. A verdict in May in yet another case resulted in $110 million in damages. In August 2017 a California jury hit Johnson & Johnson with a $417 million verdict. That verdict was later overturned and a new trial ordered.

In February 2017, Johnson & Johnson won its first defense verdict, and in June 2017 another case was declared a mistrial following a Supreme Court decision limiting plaintiffs’ options for filing in state courts.

However, the largest decision came in August 2018, when a group of 22 women were awarded $4.7 billion, in a verdict that was later upheld based on the amount of evidence indicating the company knew about the risks of ovarian cancer but failed to warn women or doctors for decades.

While the verdict was subsequently reduced to $2.1 billion, Johnson & Johnson appealed the decision all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2021. However, in June 2021, the Supreme Court denied the company’s petition.

In October 2021, just a few months later, Johnson & Johnson attempted spin off its liability for baby powder cancer lawsuits as a separate subsidiary, LTL Management, which immediately filed for bankruptcy, claiming it had only $10 billion in assets. At that time, Johnson & Johnson was only one of two companies in the world who had a “perfect” credit score, with a market value of $400 billion, with $25 billion in cash on hand.

This tactic, known as the “Texas Two-Step” has been widely maligned by legal experts and lawmakers alike, as a way for a company flush with cash to pay plaintiffs in mass tort lawsuits only pennies on the dollar to resolve their settlements after realizing plaintiffs would win massively in court.

The bankruptcy filing held up talcum powder litigation and derailed federal bellwether lawsuits which were originally scheduled to begin going before juries in April 2022, until talcum powder plaintiffs’ lawyers appealed the filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in September 2022, arguing that the bankruptcy filing was done in bad faith to derail the litigation and avoid liability costs, which would not have put a massive company like Johnson & Johnson in financial distress.

In January 2023, the Third Circuit appeals court removed Johnson & Johnson’s LTL Management subsidiary from bankruptcy, agreeing with plaintiffs that LTL was created for the sole purpose of filing bankruptcy to help shield its parent company from large talcum powder lawsuit settlement costs.

The court ruling throws the cases back to proceed in the U.S. District of New Jersey, which is likely to resume preparing for federal bellwether trials, and could begin remanding thousands of cases back to their federal courts of origin for trial, unless a fair and equitable talcum powder cancer litigation settlement can be reached.

In April 2023, Johnson & Johnson put forward a $9 billion talcum powder lawsuit settlement offer, but the deal has been derided as insufficient and criticized for involving yet another attempt for LTL Management to declare bankruptcy, likely limiting payouts for future plaintiffs.

FIND OUT IF YOU MAY QUALIFY FOR A TALC POWDER OVARIAN CANCER SETTLEMENT: Free consultations and claim evaluations are provided by talcum powder lawyers for women throughout the United States who have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.