New research published this week lends credence to the greater than 50,000 Lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson who claim their talc-based baby powder caused ovarian cancer.
The evaluationA study published Wednesday within the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that applying talcum powder to the genitals is linked to ovarian cancer — and that this link was greater in individuals who used the powder incessantly or for long periods of time.
The researchers are from the National Institutes of Health and their findings were based on data from the Sister Study, which involved greater than 50,000 women within the United States from 2003 to 2009. Participants joined once they were between 35 and 74 years old. Each had a sister who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, which could increase their risk of breast or ovarian cancer.
Lawsuits involving J&J's talc-based baby powder date back to 1999, when a girl claimed that lifelong use of the powder caused mesothelioma, a rare cancer normally attributable to exposure to asbestos – a known carcinogen. In 2009, one other woman sued the corporate, claiming the talc-based products caused her ovarian cancer. Since then, many 1000’s of others have filed lawsuits over ovarian cancer or ovarian cancer cases Mesothelioma, which they are saying was attributable to asbestos in J&J baby powder.
J&J stands by the protection of its talc products and denies that they ever contained asbestos. The company also argued that studies haven’t shown a convincing link between ovarian cancer and talc-based products.
The latest research could undermine that argument as litigation continues. Most of the lawsuits against J&J have been consolidated right into a single federal case in New Jersey, scheduled for trial in December.
“This study comes at the right time. We feel it fully vindicates and validates the position of the plaintiffs’ experts,” said Leigh O’Dell, principal at law firm Beasley Allen. O'Dell is co-lead counsel on the Plaintiffs Steering Committee, a bunch of attorneys appointed to act on behalf of the numerous individuals with pending cases against J&J.
However, Erik Haas, global vp of litigation at J&J, said the brand new evaluation neither shows a causal link nor implicates a selected cancer-causing agent.
“This study does not change the overwhelming evidence that talcum powder does not cause ovarian cancer,” he said.
Earlier this month, J&J proposed paying about $6.48 billion to settle the lawsuits. However, the deal would involve moving the cases to bankruptcy court and require 75% of plaintiffs to vote in favor.
J&J tried twice and failed Resolve talc lawsuits in bankruptcy court. The company created a subsidiary in 2021 that might assume liability for legal claims related to talc — a legal maneuver referred to as the “Texas Two Step.” However, the courts have thus far rejected the insolvency applications on the grounds that the subsidiary will not be in financial distress.
O'Dell said her team “would like to see these women offered a reasonable and fair resolution outside of bankruptcy.”
“Any attempt to file another bankruptcy filing is, in our opinion, just another abuse of the bankruptcy system,” she said.
The potential harms of talc products
The latest study asked women how often they applied talcum powder to their genitals between the ages of 10 and 13 and within the yr before they entered the study. NIH researchers conducted surveys from 2017 to 2019 asking women about their lifetime use of talcum powder.
Based on the responses, researchers estimated that as much as 56% of girls used talcum powder on their genitals sooner or later. Compared to individuals who didn’t use talcum powder, these women were more more likely to be black, to have less education, and to live within the South.
The evaluation cannot prove that talc causes ovarian cancer, nor does it discover a brand or chemical that makes the connection. Dale Sandler, one among the study's authors and chief of the epidemiology division on the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said there may be likely no solution to prove causality in human studies.
“You can't do a clinical trial and randomly divide people into 'powder' and 'no powder.' So we need to look at other types of research,” she said.
At the very least, the outcomes should prompt women to reconsider their use of talc products, said Katie O'Brien, the lead writer of the evaluation and an epidemiologist on the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
“We are not aware of any medically necessary reasons why someone would need to use talc,” she said.
Current formulations of J&J Baby Powder use cornstarch, not talc. The company preferred the talk-based versions from the North American market in 2020, citing slowing demand and “misinformation about the safety of the product” and has discontinued the product internationally last yr.
Talc and asbestos occur in close proximity in nature, so raw talc can also come from mining contaminated with asbestosin line with the Food and Drug Administration.
A Reuters investigation 2018 suggested that J&J knew it Some baby powder was already contaminated with small amounts of asbestos within the Seventies. However, J&J denies that asbestos was ever contained in its products.
O'Brien said asbestos might not be the one reason for a link between talc and cancer. Some talc products can also contain phthalates – chemicals that disrupt hormones within the body have been linked to ovarian cancer. Additionally, talc itself could be abrasive, she added, so it might cause inflammation within the areas where it’s applied. Inflammation is independently linked to the event of cancer.
A debate about science
Debates over the research linking talc and ovarian cancer will almost actually be a spotlight of the upcoming litigation within the J&J case.
The federal court in New Jersey ruled in March that the corporate can challenge findings linking ovarian cancer to talc.
To support its position, J&J has indicated that it’s investigating this O'Brien and Sandler released in 2020which found no statistically significant association between ovarian cancer and talcum powder use.
But O'Brien said the older study may not have been designed to detect small changes in risk since it didn’t ask women about their lifetime use or consider the likelihood that folks could misremember their past habits. Sandler said the brand new study takes each of those variables into consideration.
“This newer analysis sort of tips the scales by taking into account all of these possible reasons why the coverage in the previous literature might have been incomplete,” she said.
How talc could have contributed to body shame
J&J began selling talc-based baby powder in 1894.
Although many ladies have used it to maintain their genitals dry, there is no such thing as a need to make use of powder to remove moisture in that area, said Alexandra Scranton, director of science and research at Women's Voices for the Earth, a nonprofit organization, which goals to eliminate chemicals which have a negative impact on women's health.
“Moisture in this part of the body is a very healthy thing,” Scranton said. “This part of the body is covered with mucous membranes. It should be moist.”
According to O'Brien's research, some women within the 2000s – often of their 20s and 30s – also used talcum powder on their genitals to feel clean and reduce odors. This use can also be not really useful by health experts since the vagina is self-cleaning and good bacteria in it naturally produce a slight odor.
Companies like J&J “basically created and propagated the myth that this part of your body – your genitals, your vagina – is inherently dirty and inherently smelly and therefore inherently shameful,” Scranton said.
J&J said it disagreed with that characterization.
Some women proceed to make use of baby powder on their genitals or have introduced latest products corresponding to vaginal washes or scented body deodorants.
“It's so ingrained and part of the way they take care of their bodies that they can't imagine not doing it,” Scranton said. “They have their mother's voice in their head: 'This is what you do to be a respectable woman.'”
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