It is being reported that Johnson & Johnson are recalling a massive shipment of baby powder after the FDA found that the product was potentially tainted with asbestos. According to the New York Times, a test was done and “the regulator found trace levels of chrysotile asbestos in samples from a bottle of baby powder purchased from an online retailer,” per Johnson & Johnson. A spokesperson for the company has said that a total of 33,000 bottles are being recalled, marking the first time that Johnson & Johnson has ever taken their baby powder off of the market.
This is not the first time that Johnson & Johnson has come under fire for potentially cancerous effects allegedly caused by their powder, as back in 2017 the company was court-ordered to pay California woman Eva Echeverria a total of $417 million in damages related to ovarian cancer.
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In her lawsuit, Echeverria said that she regularly used Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder daily all from as far back as the 1950s, all the way up to 2016. She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007 as a “proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder.”
Her attorney, Mark Robinson, explained at the time that Echeverria was undergoing cancer treatment in the hospital and told him that she hoped the verdict would be cause for the company to star putting a warning label on its product.
“Mrs. Echeverria is dying from this ovarian cancer and she said to me all she wanted to do was to help the other women throughout the whole country who have ovarian cancer for using Johnson & Johnson for 20 and 30 years,” he told the Associated Press. “She really didn’t want sympathy,” he added. “She just wanted to get a message out to help these other women.”
Robinson also stated that among the pieces of evidence in the case were internal Johnson & Johnson documents from throughout many years that “showed the jury that Johnson & Johnson knew about the risks of talc and ovarian cancer.”
“Johnson & Johnson had many warning bells over a 30 year period but failed to warn the women who were buying its product,” he went on to say.
Additionally, the company also landed in hot water earlier this year when a judge ruled that it could be held responsible for fueling the opioid crisis in the state of Oklahoma.
According to The Washington Post, the health care company will be expected to pay out $572.1 million in restitution in help make up for the many years of damage that the state and it’s citizens have suffered.
