Johnson & Johnson won the latest trial over claims its iconic baby powder can cause cancer, as a jury in Long Beach, California, rejected a lawsuit brought by a 65-year-old retired teacher who claimed the product was contaminated with asbestos, Bloomberg News reported. The J&J victory on Friday comes the week after the company settled three cases alleging baby powder caused a rare asbestos-connected cancer. Two, in Oklahoma and California, were settled during trial. The other, in New York, was settled less than two weeks before trial was set to begin. Plaintiff Robert Blinkinsop was diagnosed in July 2017 with mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the lung generally caused by asbestos exposure. Blinkinsop used Johnson’s baby powder daily for personal hygiene from 1977 to 1994 and on his children from 1992 to 1996, his attorney, Mark Bratt, said at trial. He also used the company’s Shower to Shower talc product. J&J is facing more than 13,000 lawsuits linking baby powder and another talc product, Shower to Shower, to ovarian cancer or mesothelioma. More than two dozen trials have been scheduled in U.S. courts in 2019.
