Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay a $700m settlement to Washington D.C. and 42 states that accuse the corporation of misleading customers about the safety of its talcum-based baby and body powders.
“Consumers rely on accurate information when making decisions about which products to purchase for their families,” said Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on behalf of the bipartisan alliance of 43 attorneys general.
“Any company – no matter how large – must be held accountable when laws protecting consumers are broken and their trust is violated,” he added.
Powder products containing talc have been linked to mesothelioma and ovarian cancer, with Johnson & Johnson currently subject to some 50,000 claims. One woman suing the corporation was awarded $260 million by an Oregon jury in early June, with jurors agreeing a talcum powder found to contain asbestos had been “directly responsible” for her cancer diagnosis.
Johnson & Johnson withdrew its talcum powders in North America in 2020. The following year, injections of the corporation’s Covid vaccine were also halted amid clotting reports, and the final available doses of the formulation in the U.S. expired in 2023.
Johnson & Johnson has also had to pay out settlements in the tens of millions of dollars for its role in “fueling the opioid epidemic” in the U.S.
