Cancer patient wins $417 million lawsuit claiming baby powder caused her illness

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, August 22, 2017 : A woman in Los Angeles won a hefty amount on Monday in a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, which claimed that its iconic baby powder can cause ovarian cancer when used regularly for feminine hygiene.

 

The jury attending the case has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay 417 million dollars (Rs 267 crore approximately) to Californian Eva Echeverria, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007.

In her lawsuit, Echeverria alleged that Johnson & Johnson failed to adequately warn its consumers about the talcum powder’s potential cancer risks.

The verdict in case of Echeverria’s lawsuit marks the largest sum awarded in a series of talcum powder lawsuit verdicts against Johnson & Johnson in courts around the U.S.

ECHEVERRIA’S CASE

Echeverria claimed that she used Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder on a daily basis from the 1950s till 2016.

According to her lawsuit, Echeverria developed ovarian cancer as a "proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder,".

"Mrs Echeverria is dying from this ovarian cancer and she said to me all she wanted to do was to help the other women throughout the whole country who have ovarian cancer for using Johnson & Johnson for 20 and 30 years," an AP report quotes Echeverria’s lawyer.

"She really didn’t want sympathy," he added. "She just wanted to get a message out to help these other women."

The evidence in the case included internal documents from several decades that "showed the jury that Johnson & Johnson knew about the risks of talc and ovarian cancer,".

The verdict came after a St Louis, Missouri, jury in May awarded 110.5 million dollars to a Virginia woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012. She had blamed her illness on her use of the company’s talcum powder-containing products for more than 40 years.


WHAT DOES JOHNSON & JOHNSON HAVE TO SAY?

Johnson & Johnson spokesperson Carol Goodrich said in a statement that the company will appeal the jury’s decision. She said that while the company sympathises with women suffering from ovarian cancer, scientific evidence supports the safety of Johnson’s baby powder.

Goodrich said that Johnson & Johnson is also preparing to defend itself and its baby powder at upcoming trials in the US.



courtesy:IndiaToday