Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $966 million in latest talc cancer case

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNN Business/Reuters

PUBLISHED Oct 8, 2025, 7:05 AM ET


Reuters — A Los Angeles jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $966 million to the family of a woman who died from mesothelioma, finding the company liable in the latest trial alleging its talc products cause cancer. The family of Mae Moore, a California resident who died at age 88 in 2021, sued the company the same year, claiming J&J’s talc baby powder products contained asbestos fibers that caused her rare cancer.

The jury late on Monday ordered J&J (JNJ) to pay $16 million in compensatory damages and $950 million in punitive damages, according to court filings. The verdict could be reduced on appeal as the US Supreme Court has found that punitive damages should generally be no more than nine times compensatory damages.

Erik Haas, J&J’s worldwide vice-president of litigation, said in a statement that the company plans to immediately appeal, calling the verdict “egregious and unconstitutional.” “The plaintiff lawyers in this Moore case based their arguments on ‘junk science’ that never should have been presented to the jury,” Haas said.

The company has said its products are safe, do not contain asbestos and do not cause cancer. J&J stopped selling talc-based baby powder in the United States in 2020, switching to a cornstarch product. Mesothelioma has been linked to asbestos exposure.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/08/business/johnson-and-johnson-liable-cancer-case-intl

[mommymarine2003]

1. My mother died at age 58 of ovarian cancer.

She used talcum powder every day. I remember before she died that she was concerned that maybe there was a connection even way back then. I quit using talcum powder after that.

[Warpy]

2. Did they have a duty to warn?

Geologists and miners knew talc contains asbestos, it's how the mineral occurs naturally.

Considering how many of us grew up in an absolute cloud of talcum powder and how few have developed asbestosis and asbestos related cancers because of it, I have to wonder about co-morbidities in the cases that did develop. Asbestos was in everything untiol the 70s. I think the Navy didn't ban it in shiips until the late 80s or early 90s.

But yeah, there should have been some fine print on the can about trace amounts of asbestos.

Still, we grew up with asbestos house siding, asbestos shingles, asbestos floor tiles, asbestos furnace insulation, asbestos pipe insulation, asbestos on old wiring. If we lived in old cities, we were surrounded by the shit)

[womanofthehills]

4. Part of the lawsuit was they knew & lied to FDA

They had a duty not to lie.

Internal memos proved they knew their baby powder had asbestos from their tests but in 1976 they told the FDA they tested their powder for asbestos and it had none. So it was blatant lying.

[Warpy]

5. Yes, they were stupid

but there was a tremendous amount of hysteria at the time as asbestos giants like W.B. Grace were being shut down and PSAs about asbestosis were all over the airwaves. "Contains trace amounts of naturally occurring asbestos" would have sent their sales through the floor.

I'm still wondering how they're tying cases specifically to baby powder since that shit was so pervasive for so long and still is in slum apartments in old cities. Expect to see these large awards reduced drastically on appeal.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Thinking of the poor babies who had the powder usrd on them.

Including my own kids decades ago.