A Boston jury has awarded $8 million to a Massachusetts woman who developed mesothelioma after years of using Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder products.
The jury found the pharmaceutical giant liable for negligence and breach of warranty, concluding that the company’s asbestos-contaminated talcum powder products caused Janice Paluzzi’s terminal cancer.
Paluzzi, a user of the company’s Baby Powder on herself and her seven children for 20 years, was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2021.
During the trial, lawyers from Dean Omar Branham Shirley legal team, which represented Paluzzi, presented evidence showing that Johnson & Johnson had internal knowledge of asbestos in its talc supply dating back decades yet continued to market the products as safe for daily use.
“Johnson & Johnson knew its talc Baby Powder could kill, and they chose to keep selling it anyway, despite the availability of safer cornstarch-based powders,” said Ben Braly, one of Paluzzi’s attorneys. “We are grateful to the jury for holding them to account.”
The jury did not find the company liable for negligence in product warnings or breach of implied warranties.
The verdict came in a retrial of the case; a mistrial was declared n 2024.
J&J has for years denied it knew that its powder was unsafe, argued that the science linking its talcum to cancer is flawed, and maintained the lawsuits have no merit.
J&J faces more than 50,000 talcum powder lawsuits tying its product to cancer. It has attempted to settle some of them through a bankruptcy filing of a subsidiary but thus far three such efforts have failed.
In January, Johnson & Johnson contested a Connecticut jury’s order of $30 million in punitive damages on top of a $15 million jury award to a man who developed cancer after using the company’s talcum powder for decades. The company said the proposed $30 million figure was “astronomical” and claimed there should be no punitive damages at all in the case or, if there must be, no more than $5 million.
J&J ceased production and sale of all products containing talc in the U.S. in 2020.
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