A New Jersey jury ruled unanimously for Johnson & Johnson yesterday in the latest lawsuit to reach a verdict over accusations that the company’s talc-based powder products contained asbestos and caused a consumer’s cancer, the New York Times reported. The jury, in Middlesex County Superior Court, not far from Johnson & Johnson’s New Brunswick headquarters, found that Ricardo Rimondi hadn’t proved that he was exposed to asbestos, a carcinogen, via the company’s baby powder. Rimondi’s lawyers argued during the month-long trial that years of exposure to products like baby powder had caused his mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the internal organs that is associated with asbestos. Rimondi was one of about 13,000 plaintiffs who have sued Johnson & Johnson, alleging that its products caused their cancer. The company has consistently denied that its powders were ever contaminated with asbestos.
