Thousands of British plaintiffs have initiated judicial proceedings against pharmaceutical heavyweight Johnson & Johnson and its preceding consumer healthcare branch Kenvue, asserting that individuals diagnosed with various cancers were subjected to asbestos contained within its talcum powder, lawyers conveyed on Thursday, October 16. The corporation has encountered a sequence of comparable legal disputes in North America, with the newest UK grievance lodged in London’s High Court.
KP Law, the legal practice acting on behalf of roughly 3,000 individuals in Britain stated that the request for recompense “is estimated to exceed GBP 1 billion” (USD 1.3 billion or EUR 1.15 billion). They contend that they, or a relative, contracted forms of ovarian cancer or mesothelioma through the utilization of J&J’s Baby Powder.
“The lawsuit, encompassing the era from 1965 until 2023, elaborates on how Johnson & Johnson possessed awareness that their talc products harbored carcinogenic fibers, inclusive of asbestos, for a duration surpassing 50 years,” KP Law declared.
The corporation “elected to sustain it within the marketplace in pursuit of monetary gain,” they incorporated, alleging J&J solely eliminated their mineral talc from Britain in 2023, three years following its removal from North American store shelves.
A Johnson & Johnson representative directed inquiries to its prior consumer health sector Kenvue, which it detached from in August 2023. “As an element of that separation, Kenvue assumed the duty and any purported accountability for talc-associated litigation outside of the United States and Canada,” the representative asserted.
A Kenvue spokesperson communicated that the safety of J&J’s Baby Powder” is substantiated by extensive years of analysis conducted by autonomous and premier laboratories, universities, and health organizations within the UK and globally.” The representative continued “the superior cosmetic quality talc” employed within the powder “was in accordance with any requisite regulatory benchmarks, was devoid of asbestos, and does not trigger cancer”.
US courts in April disapproved of a J&J proposition to dispense approximately $8 billion over 25 years for the resolution of roughly 90,000 civil grievances therein pertaining to ovarian matters, without accepting culpability.
The World Health Organization’s cancer division categorized talc as “possibly carcinogenic” for individuals in July of the prior year.
An overview of research disseminated in 2020 encompassing 250,000 women throughout the United States failed to discern a statistical correlation linking the application of talc on the genital area and the vulnerability to ovarian cancer.
