The multi-million pound baby powder case | Cancer
“I remember lying on a bed,” says Sue Rizello of her earliest memories nearly 60 years ago, “with my mother leaning over me and using baby powder on me.”
Baby powder, or more specifically talcum powder sold by the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, is “one of those things that has been there my whole life…it’s very deeply ingrained in the psyche that it was a gentle and safe product,” she says. Annie Kelly. “It was good for your baby.” It’s good for you.
Yet for Rizello, all that was about to change. In her late 40s, she was diagnosed with aggressive ovarian cancer. Additionally, she believes that a lifetime of use of Johnson & Johnson baby powder was the cause.
Senior News Editor Esther Addley reports a class-action lawsuit launched in October by more than 3,000 cancer survivors and their loved ones, claiming that Johnson & Johnson knowingly sold talcum powder contaminated with asbestos and attempted to hide the evidence from consumers for years.
The company vigorously denies the accusation and has said its baby powder meets all required regulatory standards, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.
