The Reason Johnson & Johnson Is Paying $72 Million in Court Over Baby Powder

Jacqueline Fox of Birmingham, AL — who sadly passed at the age of 62 last October — had been using Johnson & Johnson Baby Powder for feminine hygiene purposes for over 35 years before she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer three years ago. Now Johnson & Johnson is quite literally paying for her death as her cancer diagnosis has been attributed to the company's talc-based products.

Fox's family may have received the first-ever court-mandated payout from Johnson & Johnson — jurors awarded the family $72 million dollars in both actual and punitive damages after finding the company guilty of fraud, negligence, and conspiracy — but theirs is not the first or only lawsuit against the company.

"Johnson & Johnson faces several hundred lawsuits claiming that it, in an effort to boost sales, failed for decades to warn consumers that its talc-based products could cause cancer," NBC News reports.

Jere Beasley, a lawyer for Fox's family, said the company has lied to the public for years about the risks associated with its products, but Carol Goodrich, a Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman, countered: "We have no higher responsibility than the health and safety of consumers, and we are disappointed with the outcome of the trial. We sympathize with the plaintiff's family but firmly believe the safety of cosmetic talc is supported by decades of scientific evidence."