OF TORTS AND TALCUM POWDER

By the sea, somewhere

Note the antique Geology T-shirt

Also, again, the presence of hair

I have written several  times about the correlation of talc use and the probability of contracting ovarian cancer, most recently on 9/13/13.  The cause-and-effect doesn’t seem to have been mapped out with much certainty; maybe the ultra-small particles of talc manage to infiltrate a woman’s reproductive apparatus and, somehow, promote deleterious mutations.  Asbestos does the same thing, more or less, to lung tissue.  Anyway, how it works doesn’t really matter; don’t use the stuff.  And don’t smother your babies in it, either.

I was led to this topic by an article on a lawsuit being prosecuted by a woman who had contracted ovarian cancer, after a lifetime of using  talcum powder (Johnson & Johnson) in great profusion.  She is suing for a sum that dwarfs the GDP of most African countries.  Her claim is that J & J knew all along that the powder was dangerous, but didn’t stop marketing it.  If this is true, she deserves to win.  But there are several shades of gray here.

Living alone and being bored much of the time, I watch too much TV.  Nearly all of my favorite shows will be interrupted periodically by advertisements for some new drug or other.  You have seen them; 30 seconds of “what this wonderful stuff will do” followed by 2.5 minutes of warnings of possible ill side-effects.  (At the end the couple - and there always is a couple – ends up in some preposterous but suggestive arrangement, as for instance side by side in separate bathtubs!)  What is going on here is obviously  a ”cover-your-ass”  maneuver; if you use the stuff and subsequently grow a horn in the middle of your forehead – tough luck, you were warned. 

So, let’s suppose that J & J discovered long ago that talcum powder was dangerous, but kept it a secret.  Then, sock it to’em  and have no mercy. 

But what if they never realized that their product was dangerous and marketed it in good faith?  Then they should get off scot free – but they must immediately festoon their talc-shakers with warnings.  Indeed, maybe, they should take it off the market entirely.

What seems to be happening here is that J & J has been aware of suspicions amongst researchers that talc contributes to OVCA, but maintains that this is not proved and gone on, business as usual.  This may be legal, but it is unarguably immoral.  They should get soundly whacked.

Astonishingly, an earlier such lawsuit against J & J was decided in the plaintiff’s  favor – but no damages were awarded!  I’d like to have listened to the  jury’s deliberations.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/research/womens-use-of-talc-powder-may-be-tied-to-ovarian-cancer/2227722