Attorneys representing plaintiffs in the talcum powder lawsuits have indicated to the U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson in the District of New Jersey, that four new peer-reviewed studies show that talc powder can cause ovarian cancer.
Johnson's Baby Powder, one of the most popular products containing talcum powder, is linked to increasing a woman's risk of ovarian cancer if she uses it regularly in the genital area. In a few cases, the cancer tissue was studied using an electron microscope and was found to have talc in it, which supported the claim that the cancer was caused by the body powder and increases the talc-related cancer risk.
Judge Wolfson, presiding over thousands of Baby Powder lawsuits and Shower-to-Shower lawsuits, is considering challenges to the admissibility of proposed expert witness testimony before the first federal court trials. This will help determine whether the evaluations presented are sufficiently reliable under the federal Daubert standard to allow juries to hear the cases.
According to a letter sent to Judge Wolfson on December 24, plaintiffs’ attorneys presented the findings of four new peer-reviewed studies, which they believe will provide further support for the general causation opinions that would be provided by their experts.
Meanwhile, the defendants, in their December 31 response to the letter, are urging the judge to disregard four peer-reviewed studies as the court oversaw a Daubert hearing in July, asserting that they do not support the reliability of plaintiffs’ experts’ opinions.
