Johnson & Johnson ordered to pay $417 million to woman in talcum lawsuit

Johnson's baby products.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

A 63-year-old woman with terminal ovarian cancer was awarded $417 million on Monday after a jury in Los Angeles found Johnson & Johnson liable for not warning her about the risks of using the company's talcum products.

Eva Echeverria's lawsuit is one of 4,500 in the United States that allege Johnson & Johnson disregarded studies that link its baby powder and Shower to Shower products with ovarian cancer. The jury awarded her $347 million in punitive damages and $70 million in compensatory damages, and found there was a connection between her cancer and the powder. Echeverria, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2007, said she started using Johnson & Johnson's baby powder at age 11 and didn't stop until 2016; Echeverria testified she would have quit much sooner had she known about the link.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.