Maureen Wright, with her sons, who are now demanding accountability over their mother’s death. (SWNS)
The family of a mum who died from ovarian cancer have said they want to ‘get justice’ and have joined a lawsuit against one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies.
Relatives of Maureen Wright believe her use of talcum powder, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, was linked to her developing cancer and have joined a group action against the firm.
They have now joined thousands of women in the UK planning to take legal action against the company over alleged links between its baby powder and cancer.
Lawyers claim Johnson & Johnson “knew for decades” that there was allegedly asbestos present in its talc products, although the company strenuously maintains that its baby powder was safe and that it “takes the issue of talc safety incredibly seriously”.
‘Devastating times’
Maureen’s son, Richard Wright, lost his mum in 1991 at the age of 13 and is now seeking answers, alongside dad Jeffrey and brothers Robert and Michael.
The family from Rayleigh, Essex, believe Maureen’s death was linked to talcum powder allegedly contaminated with asbestos.
“This is about justice for my mum and the bottom line is someone being held accountable,” Richard, who is now 46, said.
“We want an explanation, we want someone to hold their hands up and say that ‘we knew this was an issue’, the more people talking about this the better.”
Maureen’s family described her as a ‘beautiful and kind-hearted woman’ who carried out work for cancer charities throughout her illness. (SWNS)
Richard says he remains haunted by Maureen’s death at the family home, adding: “I can remember speaking to my mum and her not knowing who I was, her coming back around, in and out of a state.
“They were devastating times and when we sat there and had to tell Michael at five that she had passed, it was horrible.”
“My mum’s whole life could have been different,” he added. “It has had a massive effect on us now and a lot of people think that if you lose your mum 30 years ago, you get over it – but you never get over it.
“She was a beautiful and kind-hearted woman, she got on with everyone. Even with her illness, she did a lot of charity work for cancer research.”
Jeffrey Wright, 75, added: “Maureen was so full of life. Even now, it’s hard to believe that she is gone. I miss her every day, but her death devastated the boys.
“Talc had always been a feature in our home — Maureen would use it all over her body and I vividly remember the taste and smell of it on my lips after kissing her.
“We had no idea why she developed ovarian cancer, it just seemed one of those tragically unlucky things. But when the news started coming out about the link between talc and cancer it started to ring alarm bells.”
Here, Yahoo News looks at the details of the Johnson & Johnson lawsuit and the current evidence linking talcum powder to cancer.
What legal action is Johnson & Johnson facing?
Law firm KP Law, based in London, is currently working on a 2,000-claimant legal case against Johnson & Johnson, and is understood to have been contacted by 4,000 potential clients in regards to claims.
A letter has been issued to the pharmaceutical firm, which has until the end of the year to respond before documents are filed in the High Court. If the action goes ahead it is understood to be the first of its kind against the pharmaceutical giant in the UK.
Lawyers argue Johnson & Johnson knew for decades about the presence of asbestos in its talcum powder and failed to act. The products were sold in the UK until as recently as 2022.
The company denies suppressing any information and denies any links between its baby powder, asbestos and cancer.
It announced in August 2022 that it would stop making talc-based powder globally and would transition to using corn-starch, and discontinued sales of talc-based baby powder in the UK in 2023.
Johnson & Johnson denies that its baby powder was contaminated with asbestos. (Reuters)
The firm has faced tens of thousands of lawsuits in the US over the alleged links between its talc and cancer, and has already set aside more than $6bn to settle ovarian cancer cases in the US with a further $4bn for people diagnosed with mesothelioma – a type of cancer that develops from the thin layer of tissue that covers many of the internal organs.
Johnson & Johnson maintains that its baby powder was safe and stressed that it “takes the issue of talc safety incredibly seriously and always has”.
Its worldwide vice president of litigation, Erik Haas, said: “As our documents show, we have relied upon the most state-of-the-art testing protocols for decades and have been entirely transparent with government institutions and academic researchers regarding our findings.”
He said those findings “uniformly show the absence of asbestos contamination in Johnson’s baby powder” and the talc sourced for the product.
“Independent science makes clear that talc is not associated with the risk of ovarian cancer nor mesothelioma,” he added.
Haas claims that J&J have won – or won on appeal – the “vast majority” of trials in the US, suggesting the lawyers in the US are “actively pushing a false narrative about the history of talc and its alleged contamination to media globally” which “defies logic, rewrites history, and ignores the facts”.
What evidence is there linking talcum powder to cancer?
In July, the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) changed its classification of talc – the main component of talcum powder – to “probably carcinogenic to humans”.
Having previously classified talc as a “possible carcinogenic” in 2010, the IARC appears to have upgraded the risk after its working group examined the evidence of numerous studies.
However, Professor Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics, Open University, said at the time of the statement that it was important not to misinterpret the findings.
Johnson & Johnson has faced tens of thousands of lawsuits in the US over alleged links between its talcum powder and cancer. (Reuters)
He said these classifications are “not saying anything specifically about whether exposure to the substance does increase the risk of cancer, in humans, at any particular amount of exposure or in any particular circumstances.
“Instead, they aim to answer the question of whether the substance has the potential to cause cancer, under some conditions that IARC do not specify.”
In other words, there is a difference between whether a substance “could increase risk of something bad happening, and not the actual risk to people exposed in certain ways,” Prof McConway said.
Prof McConway said evidence used by the IARC for its talc assessment included animal studies in which laboratory rats breathed in talc, and studies in cell cultures, none of which tells us “whether those processes operate in human beings”.
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While there have been studies showing an increased risk of ovarian cancers in people who used talc compared to people who did not use it, he said, these are “observational studies” and that other variables between the people involved could be at play.
According to a study published in May 2024 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers found a “persistent positive association between genital talc use and ovarian cancer, with the highest risks observed in frequent and long-term users”.
Researchers at the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences enrolled 50,884 women who had a sister with breast cancer and collected data on their genital talc use between 2003-2009, and again between 2017-2019.
They used the Cox proportional hazards model, a statistical model, and found that based on the 35-56% of participants who used genital talc, there was a positive association with ovarian cancer.
Depending on which studies you look at, however, the evidence can vary considerably, says the American Cancer Society, with tests on animals, studies in people both producing “mixed results”. It points out that the US National Toxicology Program (NTP) has not fully reviewed talc (with or without asbestos) as a possible carcinogen.
The Cancer Research UK website states that there is “not enough evidence to say that talcum powder causes cancer”, adding: “Some studies suggest an increased risk of ovarian cancer in women who used talcum powder on their genitals. But other more reliable studies do not find a link between talcum powder and ovarian cancer.
“More research is needed to be able to say whether using talcum powder increases the risk of ovarian cancer.”