Insight

Thousands Claim Link Between Baby Powder and Cancer

Published: March 29, 2019

“A product mothers can trust’. Generations of mothers know this is the advertising promise behind Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder, the talc product with a fragrance that is among the most recognizable in the world.

But in 1999 it was a much different reality for Darlene Coker. The mother of two and manager of a massage school was dying from mesothelioma, a deadly lung cancer normally found in workers exposed to asbestos fibers while on the job.

Darlene wanted to know how she could have contracted this deadly disease. The answer: the Johnson & Johnson baby powder she used on her daughters and sprinkled on herself all her life, according to a lawsuit Darlene filed against the health care giant.

See the complete issue of Pamela Nichols's newsletter on the O'Connell and Aronowitz website.

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