Asbestos in baby powder? Billion dollar lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson
Thousands of Britons are accusing Johnson & Johnson of containing carcinogenic asbestos in its baby powder. However, the company rejects the accusations.
17.10.2025, 22:07
SDA
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- Around 3,000 Britons are suing Johnson & Johnson because their baby powder is alleged to contain carcinogenic asbestos.
- The plaintiffs are demanding over a billion pounds in compensation and accuse the company of continuing to make profits despite decades of knowledge.
- J&J denies the allegations and points to tests that classify the talc as harmless.
Thousands of Britons have filed a class action lawsuit against the US pharmaceutical and cosmetics company Johnson & Johnson over potentially carcinogenic baby powder. The approximately 3,000 plaintiffs are demanding compensation totaling more than one billion pounds (1.1 billion Swiss francs), explained the law firm KP Law on Thursday.
The lawsuit concerns the allegation that J&J baby powder contained carcinogenic asbestos. The plaintiffs blame the powder for cancers such as ovarian cancer that they or their relatives developed.
The statement of claim states that J&J "knew for more than 50 years that its talcum powder contained carcinogens, including asbestos", the law firm explained. Nevertheless, the company continued to sell the baby powder "in the pursuit of profit". It was only three years after the powder was withdrawn from the market in the USA that sales were finally discontinued in the UK in 2023.
"Tested over many years"
A spokesperson for the cosmetics division Kenvue, which was spun off from Johnson & Johnson in 2023, explained that the J&J baby powder had been "tested for years by independent and leading laboratories, universities and health authorities in the UK and around the world". The talc it contained met all "required standards, contained no asbestos and does not cause cancer", the spokesman said.
In April, US courts rejected a proposal by Johnson & Johnson to pay around eight billion dollars over 25 years to settle around 90,000 civil ovarian cancer lawsuits without admitting liability.
The World Health Organization (WHO) classified talc as "probably carcinogenic" in July last year. However, an evaluation of studies involving 250,000 test subjects in the USA published in 2020 found no statistical link between the use of talcum powder on genitals and the risk of ovarian cancer.
