Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay 72 million dollars to the family of a woman who died of cancer after using for years to baby powder and other products of the company, which today rejected the ruling and studying its legal options.
A jury in Missouri (USA) ruled in favor of the relatives of Jacqueline Fox filed a civil lawsuit against J & J for concealing for years to consumers the risks of talc in cosmetic products.
"This verdict overturns decades of science that demonstrates the safety of talc as in many cosmetic products and while we understand the family, we strongly disagree," said a spokeswoman for the company told CNN.
This is the first verdict in a US court on behalf of an affected, according to which the Fox family are entitled to compensation of 10 million dollars and 62 million in damages and punitive damages.
Lawyers for the Fox family claimed in the lawsuit that she has been using for decades baby powder and other products of Johnson & Johnson and three years ago was diagnosed ovarian cancer and died in 2015.
For the jury, the multinational is responsible for fraud, negligence and conspiracy to consider proven that knew for years the health risks of the use of products containing talc but never alerted consumers.
Fox's case is one of about a thousand similar lawsuits facing the Johnson & Johnson in courts of Missouri and New Jersey and the company is now studying its legal options.
Researchers at the Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 2005 published a study which suggests that women who avoid talc in the genital hygiene are less likely to develop ovarian cancer.