Johnson & Johnson Sued by Los Angeles County Over Mesothelioma Deaths
Though most personal injury claims surrounding malignant mesothelioma are filed by surviving family members or individual victims of the rare asbestos-related disease, other parties can be harmed by asbestos company negligence. This includes municipalities that incur significant costs as a result of subsidizing care for those afflicted with serious illness. This is the basis for a claim that was recently filed by Los Angeles County against consumer giant Johnson & Johnson. The city is blaming the company for the illnesses of many of its residents and is seeking compensation for the costs involved.
Los Angeles Joins Tens of Thousands of Johnson & Johnson Mesothelioma and Ovarian Cancer Claimants
The lawsuit filed by Los Angeles County goes into significant detail regarding the harms that it says the company’s talc products have caused: included in its claims are compensation for having made “false and misleading representations about the product’s safety” related to mesothelioma and ovarian cancer care, as well as for the way that the company’s marketing campaigns specifically targeted women of color.
The county’s approach is significantly different from what is commonly seen in cases filed by individual mesothelioma and ovarian cancer plaintiffs. Designed to counter the company’s arguments that talc is not dangerous and that their popular product was not contaminated by asbestos, Los Angeles’ attorneys have presented numerous health studies that directly link talc products to asbestos-related diseases. They also point to documents showing that the company had been warned of the health risks that their product presented as long ago as 1975, but did nothing to adjust their marketing or pull the product from consumer shelves.
Data in Johnson & Johnson’s Possession Integral to Los Angeles County’s Mesothelioma Case
Included in the county’s filing against Johnson & Johnson are records showing that the company had decided against following recommendations to switch from its talc base to corn starch, despite having been aware of data “suggesting an association between talc and ovarian cancer and were thereby on notice of the association as early as the mid-1970s.” It is unclear what amount of compensation the county will be seeking as its case move forwards.
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