Johnson & Johnson talc settlement includes $15M for MD; first payment due late July

Maryland is set to receive nearly $15 million as one of dozens of states that recently reached a $700 million settlement with Johnson & Johnson over the company’s misleading marketing of its talc-based products.

More than 40 state legal officers, including Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, alleged that Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries knowingly promoted and sold talc-based products that could pose severe health risks, like the company’s baby powder.

“Many Marylanders who, for decades, trusted that the personal care products they were using were safe and pure, are now suffering horrific consequences. It is inexcusable,” Brown said in a statement Tuesday. “We will hold companies who jeopardize public health by promoting and selling products that may contain harmful, cancer-causing substances accountable for their actions.”

The first of four roughly $3.8 million installments for Maryland is due July 30. Successive payments are expected by July 30 of each year through 2027, according to the settlement agreement.

Johnson & Johnson will continue to not manufacture, sell, distribute or promote its talc-based baby, body and cosmetic products in the U.S. as part of the settlement.

The company had sold talc-based baby powder for more than a century, though in 2020 it stopped distributing and selling the product in the U.S., and then it planned to cease worldwide sales in 2023. The company now uses cornstarch in its baby powder.

Suing states alleged that the company knew its talc powder products sometimes contained carcinogenic asbestos and that they posed an increased risk of ovarian cancer for women who used them in their genital area, according to the attorney general’s office.

Private plaintiffs suing the company over its baby powder have alleged that talc causes mesothelioma and ovarian cancer, among other serious health issues.

Under a consent judgment filed Tuesday, Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries cannot resume the manufacture, marketing or promotion, or sale or distribution of any of its talc products, either directly or through a third party.

In Maryland, the settlement is still pending an approval from the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.