Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $417 Million to Ovarian Cancer Victim in Talc Case

Johnson & Johnson Ordered to Pay $417 Million to Ovarian Cancer Victim in Talc CaseOn Monday, August 21, while most of the country was out searching for the solar eclipse, a jury in Los Angeles awarded $417 million to Eva Echeverria. She is dying of ovarian cancer – too ill even to attend the trial – linked to 41 years’ worth of daily use of Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder.

USA Today reports “Echeverria used Johnson Baby Powder sometimes twice a day for 41 years, continuing to do so even after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007. It was only in February, 2016, when she saw a news report about another woman who’d brought a lawsuit after allegedly becoming ill from talcum-based products that Echeverria finally stopped using it.”

The jury awarded $347 million in punitive damages; the verdict is the third largest in the U.S. in 2017.

The link between talc and ovarian cancer

In 1979, an article was published in The Lancet about the connection between asbestos-related talc products and ovarian cancer. Drug manufacturers removed the asbestos (already a known carcinogen), but did not make any additional changes. This decision may have decreased a woman’s chance of developing ovarian cancer, but it didn’t eliminate it.

Then, in 2015, the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer published a study with the following analysis:

“Talc use increased ovarian cancer risk by 30–60% in almost all well-designed studies. The Attributable Risk was 29%, meaning that elimination of talc use could protect more than one quarter or more of women who develop ovarian cancer…. Well-designed studies that considered dose response by both duration and frequency all found higher risk among women exposed to more applications.”

The numbers are there. We can no longer deny the link between perineal talcum use and ovarian cancer.

And Johnson & Johnson can no longer deny the role it played in the process. While it fights and appeals and tries to bury victims in paperwork, women around this country – primarily minority women, who grew up with these products – are dying of ovarian cancer. This latest judgment against the company is another step towards justice for these families.

McGowan, Hood, Felder & Phillips, LLC is a premier personal injury firm, leading the charge against defective products. We have earned a national reputation for our work. If you or someone you love has developed cancer after years of using talc-based hygiene products, we may be able to help. Please call 803-327-7800 or fill out our contact form, and schedule your free consultation today with an experienced South Carolina defective product lawyer.

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