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Johnson & Johnson faces legal action over alleged cancer link
The Guardian
|October 17, 2025
Thousands of people are taking legal action against the US pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, claiming it knowingly sold baby powder containing asbestos-contaminated talc in the UK.
As many as 3,000 people have alleged that they or a family member developed forms of ovarian cancer or mesothelioma from using Johnson’s Baby Powder, and are seeking damages at the high court in London.
Lawyers for the group said Johnson & Johnson, along with its current and former subsidiaries Johnson & Johnson Management and Kenvue UK, should all be held liable, according to court documents filed yesterday by KP Law.
They said J&J concealed the risk to the public for decades. The company later replaced talc with corn starch but did not stop making and selling talc-based baby powder in the UK and globally until 2023, three years after it ended sales in the US and Canada.
J&J denies the allegations. A spokesperson for Kenvue, the former J&J consumer health division that was spun off two years ago and has responsibility for talc-related claims outside the US and Canada, said the talc used in baby powder complied with regulations, did not contain asbestos, and does not cause cancer.
Talc is a naturally occurring mineral that is mined from the ground.
This story is from the October 17, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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