Crime & justice

Johnson & Johnson Settles US Talc Lawsuits for $5.5B

Is this a corporate escape hatch or the best justice victims were ever going to get?

Published 2 hours ago

Johnson & Johnson Settles US Talc Lawsuits for $5.5B

Story

Above: A bottle of Johnson's baby powder on a table in San Anselmo, California, on Oct. 18, 2019. Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The Spin

Establishment-critical narrative

This settlement is a corporate escape hatch — thousands of cancer claims get paid off while the company admits nothing. Baby powder tested positive for asbestos in the 1970s, yet mothers kept using it for decades because "Safe for Babies" was a marketing line masked as science. Settling without accountability just lets corporations buy their way out of the consequences of their own decisions.

Vaccine Safety Research Foundation on X

Pro-establishment narrative

This settlement closes a decade-long legal battle that courts were already tilting against plaintiffs. A federal judge recently cast doubt on whether individual claimants could even prove talc caused their ovarian cancer, and J&J had won the vast majority of cases that went to trial. This settlement delivers real money to claimants, even though the science never actually supported the core allegations.

Radio New Zealand (RNZ)