U.S. bankruptcy judge halts 40,000 Johnson & Johnson talc and cancer lawsuits

Story by Annika Kim Constantino • Yesterday 

A federal bankruptcy judge halted roughly 40,000 of lawsuits alleging Johnson & Johnson's baby powder and other talc products caused cancer.

Judge Michael Kaplan put a temporary hold on the suits that will last through mid-June, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The decision is part of J&J subsidiary LTL Management's second attempt to settle talc cases in bankruptcy proceedings.


In this photo illustration, a container of Johnson and Johnson baby powder is displayed on April 05, 2023 in San Anselmo, California.© Provided by CNBC

A federal bankruptcy judge on Thursday halted roughly 40,000 lawsuits that allege Johnson & Johnson's baby powder and other talc products caused cancer.

The decision is part of J&J's second attempt to settle thousands of talc cases in bankruptcy proceedings.

J&J in 2021 spun off its subsidiary, LTL Management, to carry its talc-related liabilities and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections.

Judge Michael Kaplan during a hearing Thursday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton, New Jersey, put a temporary hold on the suits that will last through mid-June, The Wall Street Journal reported.

J&J won't have to go to trial over any other talc claims during the pause, but new lawsuits can still be filed against the company, The Journal reported.

Kaplan said during the hearing that J&J has an "uphill battle" ahead, according to the newspaper.

The pause will give J&J time to reach a permanent settlement with plaintiffs in the talc cases. The company recently proposed an $8.9 million settlement for current and future talc-related claims and said it expects to bring that plan to bankruptcy court in mid-May.

J&J in a statement called Kaplan' decision "a win for claimants" because it brings them "one step closer" to being able to vote on the proposed settlement.

The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company also said it believes claimants will overwhelmingly support the proposal.

J&J previously said more than 60,000 claimants have already committed to voting in favor of the plan.

"When presented with a clear and complete explanation and the opportunity to make an informed choice, we firmly believe the claimants will approve the plan," said Erik Haas, J&J's worldwide vice president of litigation.

Kaplan's decision is narrower than the one he made after LTL Management first filed for Chapter 11 in 2021.

The judge ruled in February 2022 that J&J can use the bankruptcy system to resolve talc allegations, enabling the company to avoid fighting thousands of individual lawsuits.

Kaplan essentially affirmed J&J's use of a strategy known as the "Texas two-step," which allows companies to split valuable assets from liabilities through a so-called divisive merger.

But in January, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit overturned that ruling. The appeals court said that neither LTL nor J&J had a legitimate need for bankruptcy protection because they were not in "financial distress."

Amid the ongoing legal fights, J&J has continued to deny the allegations that its talc products caused cancer.

Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said on an earnings call Tuesday that it was "unfortunate" that J&J has to "put dollars towards quite frankly baseless scientific claims."

The suits allege J&J's talc products were contaminated with the carcinogen asbestos, which caused ovarian cancer in thousands of individuals.

Some lawsuits link several deaths to J&J's talc products.

US judge halts most talc lawsuits against J&J, stops trials

Story by By Mike Spector • Yesterday 


FILE PHOTO: Bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby powder line a drugstore shelf in New York© Thomson Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday halted most of the tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder and other talc products caused cancer and stopped any trials as part of a company subsidiary’s second attempt to settle cases in bankruptcy proceedings.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan put most of the litigation temporarily on hold during a hearing in Trenton, New Jersey. The decision, for the most part, granted a request from J&J to freeze cases while it attempts to reach a permanent settlement with current plaintiffs that would also set aside money for future lawsuits.

J&J says it has broad support for a proposed $8.9 billion settlement, a contention disputed by lawyers representing talc claimants who oppose it.

The J&J subsidiary, LTL Management, filed for bankruptcy a second time earlier this month to help finalize the latest deal, despite a federal appeals court’s decision in January that invalidated its first Chapter 11 filing, on the grounds the J&J unit was not in financial distress.

“I have more questions than answers,” Kaplan said during Thursday's court hearing, referring to arguments made to him about the second bankruptcy case earlier this week.

The judge halted roughly 38,000 talc lawsuits consolidated in a federal district court in New Jersey. He allowed other cases to proceed as long as no trials commence.

He said he would revisit the ruling in late May.

Erik Haas, J&J’s worldwide vice president of litigation, in a statement called the ruling “a win for claimants” and expressed confidence they would ultimately approve the proposed settlement.

LTL Management argued that allowing litigation against J&J to continue would imperil current settlement efforts. J&J previously used a complex legal maneuver, known as a Texas two-step, to shift responsibility for the lawsuits to LTL.

Leigh O’Dell, one of the lead lawyers for plaintiffs in cases consolidated in the New Jersey federal court, said prohibiting trials limits pressure on J&J.


Related video: J&J talc unit asks judge to halt cancer lawsuits as it pursues $8.9 bln settlement (WION)  Duration 1:12  View on Watch

“We continue to believe that this bankruptcy effort is illegitimate … and that stance will be affirmed through the appellate process,” she said in a statement.

The judge’s ruling kept in legal limbo consumers alleging J&J talc caused their ovarian cancer or mesothelioma. Some plaintiffs allege asbestos in the talc sickened them. For now, none can test their claims before juries.

J&J has said its talc is safe, asbestos-free and does not cause cancer.

The healthcare conglomerate has not filed for bankruptcy itself. In October 2021, J&J divided its consumer business in two and offloaded the talc lawsuits onto a newly created subsidiary, LTL, which then declared bankruptcy.

In January, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia invalidated LTL's bankruptcy filing. Kaplan dismissed the bankruptcy earlier this month, only for LTL to file for Chapter 11 again in his court about two hours later.

'UPHILL BATTLE'

Talc plaintiffs opposing J&J's proposed settlement plan to file a motion to dismiss the second bankruptcy filing, one of their lawyers said in court on Tuesday.

They portray J&J’s actions as an abuse of the bankruptcy system by a multinational conglomerate valued at more than $400 billion and in little danger of running out of money to pay cancer victims.

A U.S. Department of Justice official charged with monitoring the case has also pushed back against the second bankruptcy.

“Undoubtedly, the debtor has an uphill battle,” Kaplan said, referring to LTL’s settlement and reorganization prospects.

J&J and its subsidiary have argued bankruptcy delivers settlement payouts more fairly, efficiently and equitably than a “lottery” offered by trial courts, where some litigants get large awards and others nothing.

Jim Murdica, a lawyer tasked with resolving talc cases for J&J, testified in a deposition last weekend that as many as 80,000 claimants support the company’s settlement offer - enough to meet a bankruptcy threshold requiring agreement from 75% of all claimants, he said.

Lawyers representing opposing talc plaintiffs contend those figures reflect mostly unfiled claims and that people behind them have not yet agreed to the settlement. J&J and LTL argue their settlement process is typical.

LTL terminated a funding agreement with its parent company that the appeals court found insulated it from the financial distress necessary to legitimately declare bankruptcy.

Its lawyers now argue that new financing agreements leave LTL Management in financial distress. At the same time, they contend the agreements provide enough funds to pay plaintiffs and avoid rendering LTL insolvent, countering arguments from plaintiffs' lawyers that the transactions were fraudulent.

(Reporting by Mike Spector; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

J&J Offered Talc Victims $4 Billion to Settle Claims Months Before Unit’s Bankruptcy

Jef Feeley
Thu, October 21, 2021, 

In this article:

(Bloomberg) -- Months before putting one of its units into bankruptcy, Johnson & Johnson offered $4 billion to settle with victims of its talc-based powder -- twice the amount it’s now proposing to pay through a forced resolution, according to people familiar with the matter.

The $4 billion offer was aimed at ending more than seven years of litigation over claims its iconic baby powder caused different types of cancers. J&J faces nearly 40,000 suits targeting its talc-based products, and has agreed to about $3.5 billion in settlements so far, according to court filings.

The world’s largest maker of health-care products wanted to split the $4 billion between trusts established to settle current and future suits, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The trusts would have been created as part of the 2019 bankruptcy case filed by Imerys Talc America Inc., J&J’s talc miner, the people said. Representatives for J&J and Imerys declined to comment.

Lawyers representing a substantial number of talc plaintiffs rejected the $4 billion settlement offer as part of the Imerys case as too low, the people said. Plaintiffs would have each received about $40,000 for their cases on average, the people added.J&J last made the proposal in March. After it was rebuffed, the company’s attorneys told their counterparts to prepare for a bankruptcy filing by a J&J unit later in the year, the people said.

Bankruptcy Filing

On Oct. 14, a newly created J&J subsidiary filed for bankruptcy protection after arguing it was struggling to contain more than 38,000 suits blaming its iconic baby powder and other talc-based products of causing cancer. It’s planning to put $2 billion into a trust as part of the unit’s bankruptcy to resolve all of its talc liability.

J&J Baby Powder Bankruptcy Brings 50 Angry Lawyers to CharlotteIn a hearing this week in Charlotte, North Carolina, J&J lawyer Greg Gordon told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Craig Whitley that the $2 billion is the company’s opening bid in a new effort to settle the talc litigation. Gordon said the $2 billion is not intended to “set a ceiling” for any talc accord.J&J officials argue they had no choice but to turn to the bankruptcy process to corral the litigation, warning it could take decades to resolve all the cases. The company has said it’s already paid $1 billion in talc-related legal fees over the last five years. Last year, it pulled the talc version of its baby powder off the U.S. and Canadian markets.The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company proposed using the Imerys case for the deal because it’s currently battling with the talc miner over its claims that indemnity agreements put the baby-powder maker on the hook for Imerys’ talc exposure. J&J offered to take over Imerys’ talc defenses and negotiated settlements of suits against both companies, according to court filings.

Trust Fund

J&J wants to use federal laws allowing companies to file for bankruptcy to deal with litigation that poses a threat. Once in Chapter 11, companies can set up trusts to pay current and future claims and plaintiffs’ are required to participate in the process.Such trusts were made popular during decades-long litigation over asbestos, a cancer-causing material used as insulation in construction and car brake pads. Some talc plaintiffs contend J&J’s baby powder was tainted with asbestos, which can cause a variety of cancers. Others say talc -- by itself -- can cause ovarian cancer.Elizabeth Burch, a University of Georgia law professor who follows talc litigation, said $4 billion wouldn’t provide proper payouts for women fighting an often-fatal disease such as ovarian cancer.

“That wouldn’t even cover most people’s economic damages,” such as health costs and lost wages, she said.J&J’s decision to turn to bankruptcy is also questionable, Burch added.

“J&J is trying to cram down a settlement that will give these folks pennies-on-the-dollar for their damages,” she added.

The case is LTL Management LLC, 21-30589, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina (Charlotte).

U.S. government experts, industry spar over asbestos testing in talc
SILVER SPRING, Md. (Reuters) - For the first time in nearly 50 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration examined asbestos testing for talc powders and cosmetics at a hearing on Tuesday, after traces of the known carcinogen were found in several such products, including Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder.

Citing those FDA findings, some U.S. lawmakers and consumer advocates have called for stricter safety regulations to protect public health.

J&J, the market leader in talc powders, has defended the safety of its talc. The company said tests by labs it hired found no asbestos in samples from the same bottle the FDA examined - except for some the company attributed to contamination from a laboratory air conditioner.

In a statement on Tuesday, the company said it looks forward to the FDA’s “thorough review of the most effective and reliable ways to test for asbestos in cosmetic talc.”

The hearing on asbestos testing in talc, the FDA’s first since 1971, focused on testing standards recommended by a panel of government experts. The recommendations, published last month, embrace positions held by public health authorities and experts for plaintiffs who in lawsuits allege that contaminated talc products caused their cancers.

An industry trade group criticized the recommendations, saying they would not improve product safety.

For decades, the cosmetic talc industry has largely been allowed to police itself with little FDA oversight. Although talc and asbestos are similar minerals often found together in the ground, the FDA has never required manufacturers to test for the carcinogen.

One of the most significant recommendations from the expert panel is that mineral particles found in talc products small enough to be drawn into the lungs, even those the industry would not technically categorize as asbestos, should be counted as potentially harmful.

In its report, the panel said both asbestos and look-alike minerals are suspected of causing “similar pathological outcomes,” so the “distinction is irrelevant.”

At Tuesday’s hearing, a government toxicologist said a wide range of spear-shaped mineral particles - including but not limited to asbestos - can trigger the development of cancer and should be part of any new testing regime.

‘THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE’

Christopher Weis, a senior advisor with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said research has shown that conventional testing methods have failed to detect the full range of hazardous fibers, known as elongated mineral particles, or EMPs.

The process of milling talc for powders and cosmetics is known to break down any contaminants into small EMPs.

“All EMPs have the ability to trigger” development of cancer and other diseases, Weis said at the FDA hearing. “Short EMPs are not conventionally counted or included in lab reports. As a toxicologist, this is unacceptable.”

Mark Pollak, chief operating officer for the Personal Care Products Council, said the recommendation for counting more mineral particles as potentially harmful is not supported by science. The cosmetics trade group represents about 600 companies.

“Counting all (elongated mineral particles) would provide misleading reports, suggesting the presence of asbestos when none exists,” Pollak said at the hearing. “The key to effective testing is identification of asbestos, not harmless minerals.”

Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, urged the FDA to endorse the more rigorous testing methods and said the agency should add a warning label to talc products so consumers are aware they may contain asbestos.

“It’s time to end the honor system which has failed consumers for so long,” Faber said at the hearing. “Let’s not wait another 50 years to finally protect consumers.”



The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have limited exposure to asbestos on the job and in the air to reduce cancers since the 1970s, when the hazard was well established. A Reuters report in December (here) showed that, during the same period, the FDA downplayed health concerns, including possible asbestos contamination, in talc powders and cosmetics and repeatedly deferred manufacturers.

Dr. Linda Katz, director of FDA’s office of cosmetics and colors, said the panel of government experts from FDA and other agencies will continue studying these issues and plans to publish a white paper at some point. The FDA has not announced a timetable for deciding whether it will pursue new rules on testing.

The increased scrutiny on this issue follows a 2018 Reuters report (here) which showed that although J&J knew for decades its raw talc and powders sometimes tested positive for asbestos, the company did not report those findings to the FDA.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Factbox-J&J's legal strategy for Baby Powder, talc liability

Fri, November 12, 2021
By Mike Spector

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson on Friday said it would split into two companies, hiving off its consumer health division that sells Band-Aids and Baby Powder from its pharmaceuticals and medical devices business.

The historic breakup comes as J&J faces nearly 40,000 lawsuits alleging its Baby Powder and other talc products contained asbestos and caused cancer, which the company denies. The plaintiffs include women suffering from ovarian cancer and others battling mesothelioma.

Chief Executive Alex Gorsky told The Wall Street Journal that the talc litigation did not play a role in the decision to break up J&J. The company is aiming to complete the separation in 18 to 24 months.

In October, J&J undertook a separate corporate reshuffling aimed squarely at tackling its talc liabilities. Here is what J&J did:

TEXAS TWO-STEP

Using Texas’s divisional merger law, the company's Johnson and Johnson Consumer Inc business split in two, offloading talc liabilities into a newly created subsidiary. The subsidiary, called LTL Management LLC, then moved to North Carolina.


Within days of those moves, LTL filed for bankruptcy protection in Charlotte. In legal circles, the series of transactions is known as a “Texas two-step.”

J&J has offered to contribute $2 billion toward resolving remaining talc litigation as part of the newly created subsidiary’s bankruptcy reorganization.

CONTROVERSIAL LEGAL MOVE

Earlier this week, a North Carolina bankruptcy judge overseeing the proceedings transferred the case to New Jersey, where J&J is headquartered. He also halted talc litigation against J&J for 60 days, extending to the healthcare conglomerate a legal shield already provided to LTL, the entity under bankruptcy protection.


Plaintiffs’ lawyers have decried J&J’s latest move to grapple with talc liabilities, accusing the financially healthy company of manipulating the bankruptcy system without filing for Chapter 11 protection itself.

In Washington, Congressional Democrats have introduced legislation that would ban the use of divisional mergers to offload liabilities as J&J did, and also limit the ability of companies that have not filed for bankruptcy from obtaining legal protections extended to those under Chapter 11 court protection.

J&J, a blue-chip company with a market value exceeding $400 billion, has spent close to $1 billion defending against the talc litigation. Settlements and verdicts have cost the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company about $3.5 billion more, although it has prevailed in some cases.

REUTERS INVESTIGATION

A 2018 Reuters investigation found J&J knew for decades that asbestos, a known carcinogen, lurked in its Baby Powder and other cosmetic talc products. The company stopped selling Baby Powder in the U.S. and Canada in May 2020, in part due to what it called “misinformation” and “unfounded allegations” about the talc-based product. J&J maintains its consumer talc products are safe and confirmed through thousands of tests to be asbestos-free.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear J&J’s appeal of a Missouri court ruling that resulted in $2 billion of damages awarded to women alleging the company’s talc caused their ovarian cancer.


(Reporting by Mike Spector; additional reporting by Maria Chutchian; editing by Edward Tobin)

TALC poses Health risk in forms like baby powder, bath bombs: Health Canada

While some forms of talc do not pose a health risk, other popular uses like in bubble baths, baby powder and bath bombs carry a risk of causing ovarian cancer, a government assessment found.

© Provided by Global News FILE - In this April 19, 2010, file photo, baby powder is squeezed from its bottle in Philadelphia. In a study released on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020, U.S. government researchers found no evidence linking baby powder with ovarian cancer in the largest-ever analysis of an issue that has prompted thousands of lawsuits and a recent product recall. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Amanda Connolly 

GLOBAL NEWS

4/23/2021

Researchers from Health Canada as well as from Environment and Climate Change Canada released on Thursday the final results of a screening assessment into the safety of talc products, launched in 2018.

The conclusion: avoid using products containing talc in loose powder form, and avoid using products containing talc in the female genital area.

READ MORE: Woman with cancer awarded $29M in Johnson and Johnson talcum powder suit

"The final screening assessment, based on the latest scientific evidence, concludes that certain uses of talc may be harmful to human health," reads a press release issued by health officials.

The screening flagged two areas of concern: the potential for inhaling talc particles when using products like baby powder, body powder and loose face powder, which carries a risk of lung damage; and potential risks when talc-containing products are used in certain self-care products for women.

These products include body powder, baby powder, diaper and rash creams, genital antiperspirants and deodorants, body wipes, bath bombs and bubble bath products.

There is no evidence suggesting talc poses a risk if ingested or used on top of the skin through products like pressed powder makeup, officials said.

Canadians are being advised to check the ingredient lists on products they are using, and to avoid using products containing loose talc that can be inhaled or that is intended for use around the female genitals.

Using the products around the female genitals is associated with a risk of ovarian cancer.

READ MORE: Can talcum powder cause ovarian cancer?

"Canadians concerned about current or previous use of products containing talc should also consult their health-care professional," the statement added.

Video: Health Canada finds talcum powder may cause cancer, lung damage

The safety of talc has been in the spotlight in recent years because of several lawsuits that linked use of baby powder with individuals who later developed ovarian cancer.

Johnson & Johnson has paid out roughly $5 billion in legal settlements since 2016 to individuals who say they developed cancer after using baby powder routinely for personal hygiene.

READ MORE: Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million in lawsuit linking talcum powder to cancer

Health Canada's draft assessment issued in 2018 suggested a link was likely.

Officials are now looking to adjust some of the product monographs for products containing talc, and reduce exposure to those products.

Video: Health Matters: Johnson & Johnson being investigated for possible asbestos

U.S. court rejects J&J bankruptcy strategy for tens of thousands of talc lawsuits

Mon, January 30, 2023 

By Tom Hals, Mike Spector and Dan Levine

(Reuters) -A U.S. appeals court upended Johnson & Johnson's attempt to offload into bankruptcy tens of thousands of lawsuits over its talc products, ruling the healthcare conglomerate improperly placed a subsidiary into Chapter 11 proceedings even though it did not face financial distress.

The decision by the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on Monday dismissed a Chapter 11 petition filed by a recently created J&J subsidiary in October to address more than 38,000 lawsuits from plaintiffs alleging the company’s baby powder and other talc products caused cancer.

Before the bankruptcy, J&J faced costs from $3.5 billion in verdicts and settlements, including one in which 22 women were eventually awarded a judgment of more than $2 billion, according to bankruptcy-court records.

Several major companies, including J&J and 3M Co, have turned to bankruptcy court to manage their mass tort liabilities. Plaintiff attorneys have called the cases an improper manipulation of the bankruptcy system, while the companies say the Chapter 11 filings are aimed at compensating claimants fairly and equitably.

J&J’s maneuver is known as a Texas two-step for a state law used to create a subsidiary that shoulders litigation and then declares bankruptcy. The Third Circuit’s opinion allows talc litigation to resume against the company.

J&J said it would challenge the ruling and that its talc products are safe.

Its shares fell more than 3% - the biggest one-day percentage decline in two years.

The New Jersey-based company, valued at more than $400 billion, said its subsidiary’s bankruptcy was initiated in good faith and designed to equitably resolve talc claims for the benefit of all plaintiffs. J&J initially pledged $2 billion to the subsidiary to resolve talc claims and entered into an agreement to fund an eventual settlement approved by a bankruptcy judge.

A three-judge panel on the appeals court rejected J&J’s argument, finding the company’s subsidiary, LTL Management, was created solely to access the bankruptcy system and not because it faced financial distress.

"Good intentions - such as to protect the J&J brand or comprehensively resolve litigation - do not suffice alone," the judges said in a 56-page opinion.

The decision throws into doubt J&J’s long-planned strategy for disposing of talc litigation after it lost a bid to reverse a watershed verdict that eventually awarded more than $2 billion to 22 women who blamed their ovarian cancer on baby powder and other talc products.

More than 1,500 talc lawsuits have been dismissed without J&J having to pay anything, and the majority of cases that have gone to trial have resulted in defense verdicts, mistrials or judgments for the company on appeal, according to the J&J subsidiary's court filings.

'PROJECT PLATO'

A December 2018 Reuters investigation revealed that the company knew for decades of tests showing its talc sometimes contained traces of carcinogenic asbestos but kept that information from regulators and the public.

“As we have said from the beginning of this process, resolving this matter as quickly and efficiently as possible is in the best interests of claimants and all stakeholders,” J&J said in a statement. “We continue to stand behind the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder, which is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.”

Facing unrelenting litigation, J&J enlisted law firm Jones Day, which had helped other companies execute Texas two-step bankruptcies to address asbestos lawsuits.

J&J’s effort, which Reuters detailed last year, was internally dubbed “Project Plato”, and employees working on it signed confidentiality agreements warning them to tell no one, including their spouses, about the plan.

The Texas two-step strategy has garnered criticism from Democratic lawmakers, and inspired legislation that would severely restrict the practice.

Jones Day did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Critics contend the strategy is an improper use of the bankruptcy system by solvent corporations wishing to escape jury trials in state courts. Bankruptcy filings typically pause litigation, forcing plaintiffs into often time consuming settlement negotiations while leaving them unable to pursue their cases in the courts where they originally sued.

“Bankruptcy courts are for honest companies in financial distress, not billionaire mega-corporations like J&J,” said Jon Ruckdeschel, a lawyer representing talc plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs and other legal experts urged U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan last year to dismiss the J&J subsidiary’s bankruptcy, arguing it was filed in bad faith and risked becoming a blueprint for large corporations seeking to avoid undesirable litigation.

Kaplan, though, denied the request, finding the J&J unit did face financial distress and that a bankruptcy court was a better forum for resolving the litigation then America’s tort system.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Mike Spector in New York; and Dan Levine and San Francisco; Additional reporting by Dietrich Knauth and Chuck Mikolajczak in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

J&J settles first talc cases to go to trial after failed bankruptcies

BRENDAN PIERSON
November 16, 2023 




(Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson on Thursday said it has settled two lawsuits claiming its talc products caused cancer, the first such cases to go to trial since a federal court rejected the company's plan to move its talc liabilities into bankruptcy court.

The settlements resolved lawsuits brought by two men, Rosalino Reyes and Marlin Eagles, who said they developed mesothelioma related to asbestos in J&J talc powder, and was part of a broader deal to settle all talc cases brought by the law firm representing them, Kazan, McClain, Satterley & Greenwood, the company said. Reyes' family continued his lawsuit after he died in 2020.

The company faces more than 50,000 lawsuits over talc, most by women with ovarian cancer. It has said that its talc products are safe and do not contain asbestos.

J&J and the plaintiffs' lawyers did not disclose any terms of the settlement, or how many cases it covered. Reyes' trial had begun last week, while Eagles' was about to begin, with a jury chosen.

"The Eagles and the Reyes families express thanks to the jurors and courtroom personnel who participated in the trial," Joseph Satterley and Denyse Clancy, attorneys for the plaintiffs, said in a joint statement.

"Our negotiations continue with the remaining firms who have a shared interest in achieving a fair and expedient resolution of their clients talc claims," J&J said in a statement.

"For those firms who elect not to pursue reasoned resolutions, we will continue to aggressively litigate their claims in the tort system, where we have prevailed in the overwhelming majority of the cases tried because the claims are meritless and are based upon junk science."

Trials in the cases have a mixed record, with major plaintiff wins including a $2.1 billion judgment awarded to 22 women with ovarian cancer. A New Jersey appeals court last month threw out a $223.7 million verdict against the company, finding the testimony of the plaintiffs' expert witnesses unsound.

The company stopped selling talc-based baby powder in favor of cornstarch-based products, citing an increase in lawsuits and "misinformation" about the talc product's safety.

The settlement comes after J&J failed for a second time in July to move tens of thousands of claims over talc into bankruptcy court, where it hoped to resolve them through a proposed $8.9 billion settlement. It is appealing that ruling.

Trials had mostly been on hold while J&J petitioned the bankruptcy court, but have now been able to resume.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)

US Supreme Court rejects Johnson & Johnson’s appeal of $2 billion penalty in baby powder cancer case

PUBLISHED TUE, JUN 1 2021
Tucker Higgins@IN/TUCKER-HIGGINS

KEY POINTS

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Johnson & Johnson seeking to undo a $2.1 billion damages award against it over allegations that asbestos in its talc powder products, including baby powder, caused women to develop ovarian cancer.

The top court announced in an order with no noted dissents that it will not hear the case.

Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh recused themselves from consideration of the case, according to the order.


In this photo illustration, a container of Johnson’s baby powder made by Johnson and Johnson sits on a table on July 13, 2018 in San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from Johnson & Johnson seeking to undo a $2.1 billion award against it over allegations that asbestos in its talc powder products, including baby powder, caused women to develop ovarian cancer.

The top court announced in an order with no noted dissents that it will not hear the case. Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh recused themselves from consideration of the case, according to the order.

Johnson & Johnson had asked the top court to review the penalty against it after the amount was upheld by the Missouri Supreme Court last year. A state appeals court earlier reduced the penalty against Johnson & Johnson from more than $4 billion.

The dispute featured fierce legal firepower on both sides, with former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal arguing on behalf of the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based pharmaceutical maker and Ken Starr, the former Whitewater prosecutor, representing women with ovarian cancer who sued the company.

Johnson & Johnson said it stopped selling its talc-based baby powder in the United States and Canada in May 2020, citing reduced demand “fueled by misinformation around the safety of the product and a constant barrage of litigation advertising.”

The company had said that it is facing more than 21,800 lawsuits against it over its talc products.

Starr wrote in his brief urging the justices not to review the case that Johnson & Johnson “knew for decades that their talc powders contained asbestos, a highly carcinogenic substance with no known safe exposure level.”

“They could have protected customers by switching from talc to cornstarch, as their own scientists proposed as early as 1973. But talc was cheaper and petitioners were unwilling to sacrifice profits for a safer product,” he wrote.

In contrast, Katyal argued that “federal regulators and respected health organizations have rejected calls for warnings on talc, and comprehensive epidemiological studies tracking tens of thousands of talc users have found no meaningful association between cosmetic talc use and ovarian cancer.”

Katyal said that attorneys for those who had sued Johnson & Johnson had searched the country “for women who were both diagnosed with ovarian cancer and among the millions who used Petitioners’ talc products.”

“They put dozens of plaintiffs on the stand to discuss their experiences with cancer, and the jury awards billions of dollars in punitive damages supposedly to punish Petitioners,” he wrote. “Lawyers can then follow this script and file the same claims with new plaintiffs and seek new outsized awards, over and over again.”

In a statement on Tuesday, Johnson & Johnson said that the Supreme Court’s decision left important legal questions unresolved.

“The matters that were before the court are related to legal procedure, and not safety,” the company said. “Decades of independent scientific evaluations confirm Johnson’s Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos, and does not cause cancer.”

Starr did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Johnson & Johnson shares were down more than 1% on Tuesday morning.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M THAT'S LEGAL
J&J mulls offloading lawsuits from Baby Powder to new company and bankrupting it: sources

By Mike Spector, Jessica DiNapoli and Dan Levine Reuters
Posted July 18, 2021 

WATCH ABOVE: Health Canada finds talcum powder may cause cancer, lung damage – Dec 5, 2018

Johnson & Johnson is exploring a plan to offload liabilities from widespread Baby Powder litigation into a newly created business that would then seek bankruptcy protection, according to seven people familiar with the matter.

During settlement discussions, one of the healthcare conglomerate’s attorneys has told plaintiffs’ lawyers that J&J could pursue the bankruptcy plan, which could result in lower payouts for cases that do not settle beforehand, some of the people said. Plaintiffs’ lawyers would initially be unable to stop J&J from taking such a step, though could pursue legal avenues to challenge it later.

J&J has not yet decided whether to pursue the bankruptcy plan and could ultimately abandon the idea, some of the people said. Reuters could not determine whether J&J has retained restructuring lawyers to help the company explore the bankruptcy plan.

J&J faces legal actions from tens of thousands of plaintiffs alleging its Baby Powder and other talc products contained asbestos and caused cancer. The plaintiffs include women suffering from ovarian cancer and others battling mesothelioma.

READ MORE: Johnson & Johnson asks U.S. Supreme Court to void $2B baby powder verdict

“Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. has not decided on any particular course of action in this litigation other than to continue to defend the safety of talc and litigate these cases in the tort system, as the pending trials demonstrate,” the J&J subsidiary housing the company’s talc products said in a statement provided to Reuters. J&J declined further comment.

Should J&J proceed, plaintiffs who have not settled could find themselves in protracted bankruptcy proceedings with a likely much smaller company. Future payouts to plaintiffs would be dependent on how J&J decides to fund the entity housing its talc liabilities.

J&J is now considering using Texas’s “divisive merger” law, which allows a company to split into at least two entities. For J&J, that could create a new entity housing talc liabilities that would then file for bankruptcy to halt litigation, some of the people said.

The maneuver is known among legal experts as a Texas two-step bankruptcy, a strategy other companies facing asbestos litigation have used in recent years.

0:53Johnson & Johnson to pay $72M in suit linking baby powder to ovarian cancerJohnson & Johnson to pay $72M in suit linking baby powder to ovarian cancer – Feb 24, 2016

J&J could also explore using another mechanism to effectuate the bankruptcy filing besides the Texas law, some of the people said.

A 2018 Reuters investigation https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/johnsonandjohnson-cancer found J&J knew for decades that asbestos, a known carcinogen, lurked in its Baby Powder and other cosmetic talc products. The company stopped selling Baby Powder in the U.S. and Canada in May 2020, in part due to what it called “misinformation” and “unfounded allegations” about the talc-based product. J&J maintains its consumer talc products are safe and confirmed through thousands of tests to be asbestos-free.

The blue-chip company, which boasts a roughly $443 billion market value, faces legal actions from more than 30,000 plaintiffs alleging its talc products were unsafe. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear J&J’s appeal of a Missouri court ruling that resulted in $2 billion of damages awarded to women alleging the company’s talc caused their ovarian cancer.

0:22Health Matters: Johnson & Johnson being investigated for possible asbestosHealth Matters: Johnson & Johnson being investigated for possible asbestos – Feb 21, 2019

Plaintiffs’ lawyers view the two-step bankruptcy strategy as one that skirts potentially expensive settlements or judgments. Companies view it as a way to corral numerous lawsuits in one court for efficient negotiations that bankruptcy law dictates for asbestos liabilities. The company outside bankruptcy can reach a funding agreement with the entity navigating a court restructuring to cover future settlement payments.

In 2017, Brawny paper towels manufacturer Georgia-Pacific used the Texas law to move asbestos liabilities to an entity that later filed for bankruptcy in North Carolina.

READ MORE: Talc poses health risk in forms like baby powder, bath bombs: Health Canada

Bankruptcy cases filed to resolve litigation, including those related to asbestos, often take years, and almost never fully repay creditors. OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP, for instance, is near resolving thousands of opioid lawsuits after two years of bankruptcy negotiations with a plan valued at more than $10 billion to address trillions of dollars in claims.

Another company, DBMP LLC, filed for bankruptcy last year to resolve asbestos liabilities and said the case could take up to eight years, according to a company press release.

J&J also faces litigation alleging it contributed to the U.S. opioid epidemic and recently recalled certain spray sunscreen products after discovering some of them contained low levels of benzene, another carcinogen.

The company in June agreed to pay $263 million to resolve opioid claims in New York. It has denied wrongdoing related to its opioids.

(Additional reporting by Nate Raymond; editing by Vanessa O’Connell and Edward Tobin)

Johnson & Johnson is pushing to settle baby powder cases linked to asbestos

Jef Feeley, Bloomberg News on Dec 4, 2023


Johnson & Johnson is making a push to resolve lawsuits claiming its talc-based Baby Powder causes cancer linked to asbestos exposure to avoid facing some jury trials next year, according to people familiar with the effort.

A trio of law firms have reached agreements for settlements covering about 100 cases, said the people, who declined to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The financial size of the accords are being kept private, the people added.

The deals may be mentioned Tuesday as part of J&J’s investor presentation at the New York Stock Exchange if company officials update shareholders about the plan for corralling the decadelong talc litigation, the people said. The session’s main focus is the company’s long-term growth outlook and product pipeline.

The company is striving to find a way to resolve all current and future baby powder cases after a judge nixed its attempt to settle them for $9 billion as part of a unit’s bankruptcy filing. The deals are part of the manufacturer’s multipronged strategy to deal with the lawsuits, which have created a drag on its shares.

J&J declined to comment.

‘Hammered by Juries’

“It looks like they are finally stepping up to the plate and acknowledging they are going to have to settle cases to be done with this,” said Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond professor who teaches mass-tort law. “Ridding themselves of trial settings can only work in their favor since they’ve been getting hammered by juries.”

The New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company pulled its talc-based powders off the market in the United States and Canada in 2020, citing slipping sales. The world’s largest maker of health care products replaced talcum with a cornstarch-based version. J&J vowed to remove all its baby powders containing talcum powder worldwide by the end of this year.

J&J faces a spate of jury trials early next year over allegations that its executives knew since the early 1970s that talc contained trace amounts of asbestos, which can cause a cancer called mesothelioma, but failed to alert consumers or regulators. J&J contends that its talc-based products don’t cause cancer and it has marketed Baby Powder appropriately for more than 100 years.

The company faces more than 50,000 suits accusing it of concealing baby powder’s cancer risk to protect its iconic product. Most of those claims are from women with ovarian cancer. The majority of the cases are consolidated before a federal judge in New Jersey.

Inventory Settlements

J&J has reached agreements to do so-called inventory settlements with law firms such as Kazan, McClain Satterley & Greenwood, and Levy Konigsberg to resolve all their mesothelioma cases, the people said. The company has come to similar terms with the Motley Rice firm, the people added.

Joe Satterley, a Kazan lawyer who has won and settled multiple talc cases against J&J, declined to comment on whether he’s settled his inventory of mesothelioma cases. Joe Rice, Motley Rice’s co-founder, also declined to comment. Moshe Maimon, a Levy Konigsberg lawyer who has won talc cases at trial, didn’t immediately respond late Monday to phone and email messages seeking comment.

The settlements resolved a case that was already on trial in state court in Oakland, California, in November and will head off trials that were supposed to start in January and March in state court in New Jersey, the people said. J&J still faces a mesothelioma case in state court in Minnesota later this month, the people added.

Besides getting trials off the calendar, J&J is trying to clear the way for a third bankruptcy filing to resolve the talc litigation in its entirety. Erik Haas, J&J’s lawyer overseeing the talc litigation, said in an October earnings call that the company was “pursuing a consensual resolution of the talc claims through another bankruptcy.”

The consolidated case is In Re Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Products Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, 16-md-2738, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (Trenton).


©2023 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for J&J 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for TALC 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for ASBESTOS 

Johnson & Johnson Puts Talc Injury Claims Into Bankruptcy

“Their decision to file this amounts to corporate fraud at its worst”

Jeremy Hill, Steven Church and Jef Feeley
Thu., October 14, 2021


(Bloomberg) -- Johnson & Johnson is turning to bankruptcy court in a controversial attempt to resolve billions of dollars in legal liabilities tied to its talc products, placing a new subsidiary holding the claims into Chapter 11 protection.

The unit, LTL Management LLC, filed for bankruptcy in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday, listing as much as $10 billion of assets and up to $10 billion in liabilities, according to court documents. Johnson & Johnson itself did not file for bankruptcy.

“We are taking these actions to bring certainty to all parties involved in the cosmetic talc cases,” Michael Ullmann, executive vice president of Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement. “While we continue to stand firmly behind the safety of our cosmetic talc products, we believe resolving this matter as quickly and efficiently as possible is in the best interests of the Company and all stakeholders.”

J&J is the latest profitable company to try to use bankruptcy court to resolve asbestos-related claims instead of fighting lawsuits one case at a time in courts around the country. Lawyers who represent talc victims have been so concerned about J&J’s legal plans that they tried, unsuccessfully, to have a federal judge in Delaware block any future corporate restructuring.

‘It’s Laughable’

“Their decision to file this amounts to corporate fraud at its worst,” said Joseph Satterley, a California-based plaintiffs’ lawyer currently in the midst of a talc trial against J&J in Oakland. “This is a company that had a $472 billion market cap as of August of this year. There’s no way this litigation presents a material threat to this company. It’s laughable.”

Under federal law, a company filing for bankruptcy protection can have all litigation against it put on hold while officials come up with a plan to resolve the Chapter 11 case. In asbestos bankruptcies, the goal is to set up a trust fund big enough to pay off all current and future cases. The company then forces all asbestos victims to apply to the trust for compensation instead of fighting in court.

“This stinks,” Andy Birchfield, an Alabama-based plaintiffs’ lawyer representing women who blame J&J’s talc-based powders for their ovarian cancers, said in a statement. “They claim their product is safe and then attempt to hide behind bankruptcy. J&J can run but it can’t hide.”

Texas Two Step

The strategy J&J is using is known in legal circles as the Texas Two Step because under a business-friendly law in that state, a company can conduct a so-called divisive merger to break itself into two parts. One part has nearly all the operations and assets, while the other gets all of the asbestos liabilities. The asbestos company then files for bankruptcy and forces everyone suing to negotiate a settlement.

Lumber giant Georgia-Pacific was one of the first companies to use the strategy when it put its Bestwall unit into bankruptcy in 2017. The company is still fighting asbestos victims in that Chapter 11 case.

Johnson & Johnson is fighting nearly 35,000 suits blaming its iconic baby powder and other talc products for causing cancer, according to a July securities filing. The number of suits increased 28% from last year and the company said in the filing that new lawsuits continue to appear.

Earlier this year, J&J was forced to pay about $2.5 billion to 20 women after the Missouri Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court refused to throw out a St. Louis jury’s finding that J&J’s baby powder was contaminated with cancer-causing asbestos.

Nonetheless, J&J executives have said that the company had “strong legal grounds to contest” its losses.

J&J has settled some cases during the more than seven-year litigation over its baby powder, which the company withdrew from the U.S market last year.

To get a handle on the talc litigation, J&J will establish a $2 billion trust to pay amounts the bankruptcy court determines its talc-claim subsidiary owes, and will divert royalty payments worth $350 million to the unit.

The case is LTL Management LLC, 21-30589, U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of North Carolina (Charlotte).

J&J Must Pay $18.8 Million to California Cancer Patient in Baby Powder Suit

By Reuters
July 18, 2023

A bottle of Johnson and Johnson Baby Powder is seen in a photo illustration taken in New York

Mike Segar/Illustration

By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson's must pay $18.8 million to a California man who said he developed cancer from exposure to its baby powder, a jury decided on Tuesday, a setback for the company as it seeks to settle thousands of similar cases over its talc-based products in U.S. bankruptcy court.

The jury ruled in favor of Emory Hernandez Valadez, who filed suit last year in California state court in Oakland against J&J, seeking monetary damages. Hernandez, 24, has said he developed mesothelioma, a deadly cancer, in the tissue around his heart as a result of heavy exposure to the company's talc since childhood. The six-week trial was the first over talc that New Brunswick, New Jersey-based J&J has faced in almost two years.

The jury found that Hernandez was entitled to damages to compensate him for his medical bills and pain and suffering, but declined to award punitive damages against the company. Hernandez will not be able to collect the judgment in the foreseeable future, thanks to a bankruptcy court order freezing most litigation over J&J's talc.

J&J vice president of litigation Erik Haas said in a statement that the company would appeal the verdict, calling it "irreconcilable with the decades of independent scientific evaluations confirming Johnson's Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer."

A lawyer for Hernandez could not immediately be reached for comment.

Reuters watched the trial through Courtroom View Network.

In closing arguments to the jury on July 10, J&J's lawyers said there was no evidence either linking Hernandez's kind of mesolthelioma to asbestos or proving that Hernandez was ever exposed to tainted talc. Hernandez's lawyers during closing arguments accused J&J of a "despicable" decades-long coverup of asbestos contamination.

Hernandez testified in June, telling jurors that he would have avoided J&J's talc if he had been warned that it contained asbestos, as his lawsuit alleges. Jurors heard from Hernandez's mother, Anna Camacho, who said she used large amounts of J&J's baby powder on her son when he was a baby and through childhood. She cried as she described Hernandez's illness.

Tens of thousands of plaintiffs have sued, alleging that J&J's baby powder and other talc products sometimes contained asbestos and caused ovarian cancer and mesothelioma. J&J has said its talc products are safe and do not contain asbestos, which has been linked to mesothelioma.

J&J subsidiary LTL Management in April filed for bankruptcy in Trenton, New Jersey, proposing to pay $8.9 billion to settle more than 38,000 lawsuits and prevent new cases from coming forward. It was the company's second attempt to resolve talc claims in bankruptcy, after a federal appeals court rejected an earlier bid.

Most litigation has been halted during bankruptcy proceedings, but U.S. Chief Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan, who is overseeing LTL's Chapter 11, let Hernandez's trial proceed because he is expected to live only a short time.

Hernandez's form of mesothelioma is extremely rare, making his case different from the vast majority pending against J&J.

Asbestos plaintiffs are seeking to have LTL's latest bankruptcy filing dismissed. They have argued the filing was brought in bad faith to insulate the company from litigation.

J&J and LTL have argued that bankruptcy delivers settlement payouts to plaintiffs more fairly, efficiently and equitably than trial courts, which they have likened to a "lottery" in which some litigants get large awards and others nothing.

J&J said in bankruptcy court filings that the costs of its talc-related verdicts, settlements and legal fees have reached about $4.5 billion.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Will Dunham and Sandra Maler)

Judge certifies Johnson & Johnson shareholder class action over talc disclosures


Fri, December 29, 2023 

Bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby powder line a drugstore shelf in New York

 REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/


By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A federal judge said Johnson & Johnson shareholders may pursue as a class action their lawsuit accusing the company of fraudulently concealing how its talc products were contaminated by cancer-causing asbestos.

U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi in Trenton, New Jersey, on Friday allowed shareholders from Feb. 22, 2013, to Dec. 13, 2018, to pursue their securities fraud claims as a group.

He rejected J&J's argument that any class period be at least a year shorter because some events that allegedly caused its stock price to fall contained no "new" information.

J&J's talc products have included its signature baby powder. The company stopped selling talc-based baby powder globally this year, switching to corn starch as the main ingredient. It has said its talc products are safe and do not contain asbestos.

"Johnson & Johnson always strives to provide truthful and fulsome disclosures," Erik Haas, J&J's worldwide vice president of litigation, said in a statement. "We will continue to vigorously litigate cases that challenge the safety of our product or the accuracy of our public statements."

Lawyers for shareholders including the lead plaintiff San Diego County Employees Retirement Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Class actions make it easier for shareholders to recover more money, at lower cost, than if they sued individually. A longer class period could increase the amount recovered.

Shareholders said J&J's stock price fell six times in late 2017 and 2018 following events that confirmed how the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based company and various executives hid the truth about asbestos in its talc products.

These events included a jury awarding $4.69 billion in July 2018 to 22 women who said asbestos caused them to develop ovarian cancer, and a Reuters report five months later that said J&J knew about the asbestos risks for decades.

J&J said the six events could not have hurt its stock price because none contained new information that "corrected" its earlier disclosures.

It said the only new information from the verdict was that jurors accepted the women's arguments, and that all 56 internal documents mentioned in the Reuters report were already public.

Quraishi was unpersuaded. Addressing the Reuters report, he said its "careful analysis" and providing of "necessary context" made it more than a rehash of "stale information."

The share price fell 10% the day the report was released.

J&J also faces mass tort litigation encompassing more than 50,000 lawsuits over its talc products.

Courts have rejected two efforts by the company to use the bankruptcy process to limit its exposure to talc litigation.

The case is Hall v Johnson & Johnson et al, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, No. 18-01833.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Daniel Wallis)

Johnson & Johnson will stop selling talc-based baby powder around the world in 2023

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business
August 12, 2022


New York (CNN Business)Johnson & Johnson is abandoning talc-based baby powder next year and instead will make it with cornstarch.

Its talc-based powder, which hasn't been sold in the United States and Canada since 2020, is at the center of tens of thousands of lawsuits filed by women who have developed ovarian cancer after using regular talcum powder

Johnson & Johnson says it remains confident in the safety of the product. But, in a statement Friday, the company said it would stop selling talc-based powder around the world next year as part of a "worldwide portfolio assessment."

"We continuously evaluate and optimize our portfolio to best position the business for long-term growth," the company said in a statement. "This transition will help simplify our product offerings, deliver sustainable innovation, and meet the needs of our consumers, customers and evolving global trends."

A handful of talcum powder companies have put warning labels on their products, but Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) argued such a label would be confusing, because it stood by its product. Some scientific studies have shown that women have an increased risk of ovarian cancer with talc use in the genital area, but others do not.

Lawsuits have been filed against the company alleging that asbestos in its talcum powder causes cancer. A St. Louis jury delivered a $4.7 billion verdict against the company in 2018, saying the company was negligent and did not warn consumers about possible health risks from its baby powder.

"Our position on the safety of our cosmetic talc remains unchanged. We stand firmly behind the decades of independent scientific analysis by medical experts around the world that confirms talc-based Johnson's Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos, and does not cause cancer," it said in Friday's announcement.

J&J to stop selling talc-based baby powder in US, Canada
AP NEWS

 In this April 15, 2011, file photo, a bottle of Johnson's baby powder is displayed. Johnson & Johnson is ending production of its iconic talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder, which has been embroiled in thousands of lawsuits claiming it caused cancer. The world’s biggest maker of health care products said Tuesday, May 19, 2020 that the discontinuation only affects the U.S. and Canada, where demand has been declining. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

FAIRLESS HILLS, Pa. (AP) — Johnson & Johnson is ending sales of its iconic talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder in the U.S. and Canada, where demand has dwindled amid thousands of lawsuits claiming it has caused cancer.

The world’s biggest maker of health care products said Tuesday the talc-based powder will still be sold outside the U.S. and Canada.

“Demand for talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder in North America has been declining due in large part to changes in consumer habits and fueled by misinformation around the safety of the product and a constant barrage of litigation advertising,” the company said.


J&J faces about 19,400 cases alleging its talcum powder caused users to develop ovarian cancer, through use for feminine hygiene, or mesothelioma, a cancer that strikes the lungs and other organs.

Of the cases that have been tried, J&J has had 12 wins, 15 losses and seven mistrials. All of the losses have either been overturned on appeal or are still being appealed.

The company insists, and the overwhelming majority of medical research on talc indicates, that the talc baby powder is safe and doesn’t cause cancer.

“Whether or not the powder actually causes cancer, people became hesitant to use the product,” Erik Gordon, a professor at University of Michigan’s business school, said in an email.

J&J spokeswoman Kimberly Montagnino said the company doesn’t plan to settle any of the lawsuits and “will continue to vigorously defend” the product.

The New Brunswick, New Jersey, company said the baby powder decision came as it moves to discontinue about 100 consumer health products. It said its aim is to prioritize products in high demand during the coronavirus outbreak and allow for social distancing in its manufacturing and distribution facilities.

J&J will still sell its less-popular cornstarch-based baby powder in North America.

Assessing the effect of hydraulic fracturing on microearthquakes

New research examines mining sites with hydraulic fracturing comparing it to those without to determine the practice’s effect on seismic hazards

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SPRINGER

The analysis of low-intensity human-caused microearthquakes, including their magnitude and frequency, has become an important factor in mining. This is a consideration not only for the safety of mining staff, but also for extraction rates and mine stability that can have major impacts on business performance.

Increasingly, the practice of hydraulic fracturing is used to precondition mines and diminish the magnitude of induced tremors as well as reduce the number of rock fragments extracted.

A new paper published in EPJ B assesses the impact of hydraulic fracturing on seismic hazards like microearthquakes, an important issue for the safety of workers and the continuation of mining operations. The paper is authored by Erick de la Barra, Pedro Vega-Jorquera and Héctor Torres from the University of La Serena, Chile, alongside Sérgio Luiz E. F. da Silva from Politecnico di Torino, Department of Applied Science and Technology, Turin, Italy.

Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping large quantities of fluids into a wellbore at high pressures. This has the effect of enlarging fractures in the target rock formation. This results in an increase in the yield of oil or gas from rocks — especially from low-permeability rocks like tight sandstone, shale and occasionally coal beds.

The authors attempt to quantify the benefits of preconditioning with hydraulic fracturing by integrating previous investigative models to create a more realistic approximation of the seismic ruptures.

This model was applied to a mine in the O’Higgins Region of Chile to assess induced seismic activity due to the effect of hydraulic fracturing. The team also considered both the magnitude of microearthquakes and the intervening time between events.

This was done by considering 15,436 microearthquakes recorded between 2003 and 2008 in three sections of the mine. These were then compared on the basis of whether the section had been preconditioned with hydraulic fracturing or not.

The results seemed to imply that hydraulic fracturing decreases the magnitude and the microearthquakes.

The model worked on by the team could also be utilised to predict seismic activity, and to understand so-called marsquakes occurring on the Red Planet. 

“In reference to the next step in this investigation, our interest is to work with the problem when self-similarity is broken,” Vega-Jorquera says. “Thus, considering the problem of multisources and relating them to multimodal distributions, this would imply evaluating possible modifications of the seismic hazard via hydraulic fracturing.”

###

References

de la Barra, E., Vega-Jorquera, P., da Silva, S.L.E.F. et al. Hydraulic fracturing assessment on seismic hazard by Tsallis statistics. Eur. Phys. J. B 95:92 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/s10051-022-00361-6

---

JOURNAL

The European Physical Journal B

DOI

10.1140/epjb/s10051-022-00361-6 

ARTICLE TITLE

Hydraulic fracturing assessment on seismic hazard by Tsallis statistics

Geological carbon sequestration in mantle rocks prevents large earthquakes in parts of the San Andreas Fault

Smaller, more frequent quakes help to reduce tectonic

strain

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION

 

IMAGE: OUTCROP OF CARBONATE-ALTERED MANTLE ROCK IN THE SAN ANDREAS FAULT AREA. A RECENT STUDY SHOWS THAT CARBON SEQUESTRATION IN MANTLE ROCKS MAY PREVENT LARGE EARTHQUAKES IN PARTS OF THE SAN ANDREAS FAULT. view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE CREDIT: FRIEDER KLEIN/©WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION

Woods Hole, MA - The San Andreas Fault in California is renowned for its large and infrequent earthquakes. However, some segments of the San Andreas Fault (SAF) instead are characterized by frequent quakes of small to moderate magnitude and high rates of continuous or episodic aseismic creep. With tectonic strain released in a quasi-steady motion, that reduces the potential for large earthquakes along those segments.

Now, researchers say ubiquitous evidence for ongoing geological carbon sequestration in mantle rocks in the creeping sections of the SAF is one underlying cause of aseismic creep along a roughly 150 kilometer-long SAF segment between San Juan Bautista and Parkfield, California, and along several other fault segments.

“Although there is no consensus regarding the underlying cause of aseismic creep, aqueous fluids and mechanically weak minerals appear to play a central role,” researchers say in a new paper, “Carbonation of serpentinite in creeping faults of California,” published in Geophysical Research Letters.

The new study integrates field observations and thermodynamic modeling “to examine possible relationships between the occurrence of serpentinite, silica-carbonate rock, and CO2-rich aqueous fluids in creeping faults of California,” the paper states. “Our models predict that carbonation of serpentinite leads to the formation of talc and magnesite, followed by silica-carbonate rock. While abundant exposures of silica-carbonate rock indicate complete carbonation, serpentinite hosted CO2-rich spring fluids are strongly supersaturated with talc at elevated temperatures. Hence, carbonation of serpentinite is likely ongoing in parts of the San Andres Fault system and operates in conjunction with other modes of talc formation that may further enhance the potential for aseismic creep, thereby limiting the potential for large earthquakes.”

The paper indicates that because wet talc is a mechanically weak mineral, “its formation through carbonation promotes tectonic movements without large earthquakes.”

The researchers recognized several possible underlying mechanisms causing aseismic creep in the SAF, and they also noted that because the rates of aseismic creep are significantly higher in some parts of the SAF system, an additional or different mechanism – the carbonation of serpentinite – is needed to account for the full extent of the creep.

With fluids basically everywhere along the SAF, but with only certain portions of the fault being lubricated, researchers considered that a rock could be responsible for the lubrication. Some earlier studies had suggested that the lubricant could be talc, a soft and slippery component that is commonly used in baby powder. A well-established mechanism for forming talc is by adding silica to mantle rocks. However, the researchers here focused on another talc-forming mechanism: adding CO2 to mantle rocks to form soapstone.

“The addition of CO2 to mantle rocks  – which is the mineral carbonation or carbon sequestration process – had not previously been investigated in the context of earthquake formation or the natural prevention of earthquakes. Using basic geological constraints, our study showed where these carbonate-altered mantle rocks are and where there are springs along the fault line in California that are enriched in CO2. It turned out that when you plot the occurrence and distribution of these rock types and the occurrence of CO2-rich springs in California, they all line up along the San Andreas Fault in creeping sections of the fault where you don’t have major earthquakes,” said Frieder Klein, lead author of the journal article.

Klein, an associate scientist in the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, explained that carbonation is basically the uptake of CO2 by a rock. Klein noted that he had used existing U.S. Geological Survey databases and Google Earth to plot the locations of carbonate-altered rocks and CO2-rich springs.

“The geological evidence suggests that this mineral carbonation process is taking place and that talc is an intermediary reaction product of that process,” Klein said. Although researchers did not find soapstone on mantle rock outcrops, results from theoretical models “strongly suggest that carbonation is an ongoing process and that soapstone indeed could form in the SAF at depth,” the paper notes.  

These theoretical models “suggest that carbon sequestration with the SAF is taking place today and that the process is actively helping to lubricate the fault and minimize strong earthquakes in the creeping portions of the SAF,” Klein said.

The paper also notes that this mechanism may also be present in other fault systems. “Because CO2-rich aqueous fluids and ultramafic rocks are particularly common in young orogenic belts and subduction zones, the formation of talc via mineral carbonation may play a critical role in controlling the seismic behavior of major tectonic faults around the world.”

“Our study allows us to better understand the fundamental processes that are taking place within fault zones where these ingredients are present, and allows us to better understand the seismic behavior of these faults, some of which are in densely populated areas and some of which are in lightly populated or oceanic settings,” Klein said.

This work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation.

 

Authors: Frieder Klein1*, David L. Goldsby2, Jian Lin1, Muriel Andreani3

Affiliations:

1Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA

2University of Pennsylvania, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Philadelphia, PA, USA

3Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, UMR 5276, ENS et Université Lyon 1, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France

*corresponding author

 

About Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) is a private, non-profit organization on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, dedicated to marine research, engineering, and higher education. Established in 1930, its primary mission is to understand the ocean and its interaction with the Earth as a whole, and to communicate an understanding of the ocean’s role in the changing global environment. WHOI’s pioneering discoveries stem from an ideal combination of science and engineering—one that has made it one of the most trusted and technically advanced leaders in basic and applied ocean research and exploration anywhere. WHOI is known for its multidisciplinary approach, superior ship operations, and unparalleled deep-sea robotics capabilities. We play a leading role in ocean observation and operate the most extensive suite of data-gathering platforms in the world. Top scientists, engineers, and students collaborate on more than 800 concurrent projects worldwide—both above and below the waves—pushing the boundaries of knowledge and possibility. For more information, please visit www.whoi.edu