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• February

  Johnson & Johnson allocates $3.9 billion for talc-related litigation.

2020

• May

  J&J announces the end of talc-based baby powder sales in the U.S. and Canada but will continue to sell internationally. Retailers continue to sell the products until they run out.

2019

• October

  After J&J voluntarily recalled a 33,000-bottle batch of talc-based baby powder on October 18th, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found asbestos in the product. Consequently, retailers across America removed the potentially harmful product from their shelves.

• May

  A New York Jury ordered J&J to pay $325 million to Donna Olson, who claimed J&J’s talcum powder was to blame for her development of mesothelioma. The jury awarded her $300 million in punitive damages and $25 million in compensatory damages.

• January

  Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., sent a letter of request for documentation about past testing of J&J’s talcum powder for asbestos.

2018

• December

  Reuters published a report of an investigation that alleged J&J knew its talc products contained asbestos. Tests from independent labs detected asbestos in the product from 1971 to the early 2000s, however, J&J never reported it to the FDA.

• May

  A California jury ordered J&J to pay $25.7 million to Joanne Anderson, who claimed she developed mesothelioma from using the company’s talc powder. The jury awarded her $4 million in punitive damages and $21.7 million in compensatory damages.

• April

  A New Jersey jury ordered J&J and Imerys Talc America to pay $80 million in punitive damages and $37 million in compensatory damages to Stephen Lanzo III, who claimed he developed mesothelioma from using Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower to Shower products from 1972 to 2003. This $117 million verdict was J&J’s first loss involving an asbestos talcum powder lawsuit.

2017

• October

  Evidence in a class-action lawsuit against J&J showed the company had known its talcum powder products contained asbestos since the early 1970s. J&J trained its employees to reassure the public that its products were never contaminated. More than 50 women with ovarian cancer in St. Louis filed this lawsuit.

2016

• November

  J&J bids to have talcum powder lawsuits moved out of St. Louis but fails.

• October

  A California woman is awarded over $70 million after she claimed she developed ovarian cancer from using J&J’s Baby Powder.

• September

  J&J’s talcum powder products spark at least 1,800 lawsuits against J&J in St. Louis.

• May

  Jurors determine J&J’s Shower to Shower directly contributed to the development of ovarian cancer in a 62-year-old- South Dakota Woman. The St. Louis Jury orders J&J to pay $55 million in damages.

• February

  A Missouri State Jury orders J&J to pay $72 million in damages to the surviving family of a woman who died from ovarian cancer, which was linked to her use of J&J’s talc-based Baby Powder and Shower to Shower for several decades. In the first damages award in a talcum powder ovarian cancer lawsuit, the verdict includes $10 million in actual damages and $62 million in punitive damages.

  Researchers find African American women who use talcum powder regularly on their genitals are 40 percent more likely to develop cancer. It is found that those who use the product in areas other than the genitals are 30 percent more likely to develop cancer.

2014

• Two class-action lawsuits are filed against J&J in St. Louis.

2009-2013

• Deane Berg, a 49-year-old physician’s assistant from Sioux Falls, South Dakota files the first talcum powder lawsuit against J&J. Berg developed ovarian cancer in 2006. J&J offers Berg a $1.3 million confidential settlement. She declines and, in 2013, is granted a unanimous verdict against J&J. Berg was not offered compensation.

2013

• Eight case-control studies suggest a 20 to 30 percent increase in the risk of developing epithelial ovarian cancer if using talcum powder on the genitals.

2010

• The risk of developing ovarian cancer if using body powder containing talc increases by 30 to 60 percent, as identified by the World Health Organization.

1997

• The use of one or more of the following methods of genital talcum powder application is determined to elevate the risk for ovarian cancer by 50 percent: storing diaphragms in powder, powdering genital areas after bathing, powdering sanitary napkins, and using genital deodorant sprays.

1993

• The U.S. National Toxicology Program classifies talc as a carcinogen.

1992

• It is determined that there is an increased risk of women developing ovarian cancer who used sanitary napkins to apply talcum powder to their genitals.

1971

• Talc particles are found “deeply embedded within” ovarian and cervical tumors. “The close association of talc to the asbestos group of minerals is of interest,” researchers say, as asbestos is a known carcinogen.

1970s

• Manufacturers begin to separate asbestos from talc in talcum powder manufacturing.

1930s

• Talcum powder is first linked to human harm in the form of post-operative granulomatous peritonitis (inflammation of the membrane that lines the abdominal wall and covers the abdominal organs) caused by talcum powder on surgical gloves.

1890 or 1892

• J&J’s Scientific Director Fred B. Kilmer invented J&J’s Baby Powder with a soft mineral called “talc.”