Woman Awarded $29M in Baby Powder Cancer Case

She said Johnson & Johnson product caused her terminal illness
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 14, 2019 1:33 AM CDT
Jury Awards $29M in Baby Powder Cancer Case
A bottle of Johnson's baby powder is displayed.   (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Johnson & Johnson must pay $29 million to a woman who claimed its baby powder gave her terminal cancer, a California jury ruled Wednesday. A Superior Court jury in Oakland found the world's largest health care company mainly liable for Teresa Leavitt's mesothelioma. The verdict said that the baby powder was a "substantial contributing factor" in her illness, the AP reports. Her suit is one of many that link cancers to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson's talc-based products and contend that the company concealed the health risk for decades.

There was no immediate comment from the New Jersey-based company. Johnson & Johnson is facing some 13,000 similar lawsuits around the country. The company has insisted that its talc-based products are demonstrably safe but it has lost a string of court cases. Last year, a Los Angeles jury awarded $25.7 million to a woman who blamed her cancer on the powder. A jury in Missouri last year awarded $4.69 billion to 22 women. Johnson & Johnson's stock price dropped nearly 2% after hours on Wednesday before recovering to close at $139.41.

(More Johnson & Johnson stories.)

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