(The Center Square) – Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and 42 other state attorneys general announced they reached a $700 million nationwide settlement to settle allegations regarding the marketing of Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder and body powder products containing talc.
In the settlement, Oregon will get about $15 million, $4.7 million of which will support various women’s health initiatives.
Johnson & Johnson sold these products for over a century. Once state Attorneys General started investigating, the company stopped selling these products in the United States and eventually ended global sales.
Though the lawsuit targeted the deceptive marketing of these products, many other lawsuits from private plaintiffs in class action lawsuits alleged that talc causes health issues like mesothelioma and ovarian cancer.
“For decades, Johnson & Johnson misled consumers about the potential harms of its talc powder products,” Rosenblum said in a statement. “Worse, they doubled down on the safety of those products, attacked credible scientific studies, refused to include warning labels on their products, and, at every turn, put profits ahead of lives. These decisions overwhelmingly harmed women. This settlement – important as it is — can never undo those harms.”
The consent judgment in this lawsuit deals with allegations against Johnson & Johnson that say the company deceptively promoted and misled consumers via advertising about the safety and purity of its talc powder products.
Due to the lawsuit, Johnson & Johnson agreed to stop selling and manufacturing baby powder and body powder products that contain talc in the United States.
One of the bigger allegations about the company’s conduct was that J&J targeted African American and Hispanic women in its marketing campaigns to mitigate the declining sales of its baby powders.
Due to the settlement, four organizations in Oregon will receive funding.
Here is a breakdown of those allotments, according to the release:
Planned Parenthood will receive $2 million for Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, ( PPCW) and $2 million for Planned Parenthood Southwestern Oregon. ( PPSO) The two Oregon organizations will use the grants to increase outreach and access to critical healthcare services and to accelerate the impact Planned Parenthood can have on closing health disparities for breast and cervical cancer and STI rates throughout the state among populations most historically marginalized.Virginia Garcia Memorial Health will receive approximately $350,000. The grant will be used to increase access to transvaginal ultrasounds (for ovarian cancer screenings) and the availability of HBV vaccines.OHSU Foundation will receive $275,000, to fund a project that targets tribal communities to fund an outreach cancer screening van.Ovarian Cancer Alliance of Oregon and SW Washington will receive $55,750. This organization works directly with patients with Ovarian Cancer to try to lighten the burden of the disease.
