Johnson & Johnson's CEO May Be Ignoring The Facts Regarding Talcum Powder Cancer

Johnson & Johnson's response to calls by health activists for a global withdrawal of Johnson's Baby Powder called patronizing, dismissive, and unresponsive

Monday, October 12, 2020 - The pressure for Johnson & Johnson to stop selling health and beauty care products that contain talc is increasing every day. The charge for action is being led online by Black Women for Wellness (BWW). The group alleges that Johnson & Johnson claims to stand ‌in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, however, the company's actions are just the opposite. Talcum powder cancer lawyers are helping Americans suffering from ovarian and lung cancer due to prolonged use of Johnson and Johnson's talcum powder and offering a free no obligation consultation.

Rather than remove Johnson's Baby Powder from the market globally, the company has redirected its marketing to black and brown women of color in India and elsewhere. Black Women for quoted Executive Director Janette Robinson-Flint in a letter to Johnson's CEO Alex Gorsky: "We are deeply disappointed by your patronizing and dismissive response to our request that your company takes its responsibility seriously to protect women around the world from unsafe chemical exposures by removing toxic products aggressively marketed to Black women. Johnson & Johnson needs to prove its solidarity with Black lives by pulling talc-based products that may be contaminated with asbestos off store shelves globally." Johnson & Johnson has discontinued sales of Johnson's Baby Powder in North America where they say demand has decreased. The sales slump is being blamed by the company on allegedly untrue adverse publicity from multi-billion dollar jury awards and the FDA finding asbestos, a known carcinogen, in talc, the main ingredient in baby powder. Johnson & Johnson is now selling baby powder and other beauty care products that contain cornstarch thought to be safer.

Last year CEO Gorsky testified that he did not read warnings emailed to him about talc potentially being contaminated with asbestos. Johnson & Johnson CEO Gorsky infuriated jurors during the punitive damages stages of 22-plaintiff ovarian cancer trial by telling them in so many words that he did not have the time to read his emails that pertained to talc potentially containing asbestos, and instead forwarded them to experts within the company to handle the matter. Attorneys for the company fought the subpoena for Gorsky to testify claiming he had "limited personal understanding of the products' safety," according to Business Insider (BI). Also, the CEO claimed not to know much about asbestos and talc. "Gorsky told jurors he didn't have first-hand knowledge of the science behind the product and instead trusted the company's experts when it came to testing and analysis of the powder, Bloomberg reported," according to BI. Gorsky's testimony was contrary to the findings of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) talc tests that found asbestos in samples taken from store shelves in 2019. The CEO's statements of not having first-hand knowledge of asbestos and talk seemed to contradict a recent article in Reuters that claims investigators had uncovered documents unsealed during court that indicated Johnson & Johnson have known they had a talc-asbestos problem since 1971.