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Article

10 Jun 2024

Author:
Anne Karpf, The Guardian

USA: British women take legal action against beauty brands for alleged cancer-causing talc powder

"Is there asbestos in your makeup? Why women with cancer are suing big beauty brands," 10 June 2024

...British women are taking leading cosmetic companies to court in the United States, claiming that they contracted mesothelioma... through their use of beauty products.

The ingredient they hold responsible is talcum powder, which is ubiquitous in makeup...

Hannah Fletcher... took legal action in the US... Fletcher agreed to a... financial settlement out of court... and her case has opened the door for dozens of other British women with mesothelioma to take legal action in the US against cosmetic companies. Some cases have settled, but many more are going through the courts...

... [The companies sued] were [allegedly] Clinique, Estée Lauder and Avon...

In 2020, Jade Jenkins – another woman from the UK... is suing cosmetics companies in the US... The... attention around the issue increased in 2018 with... lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson (J&J), alleging that the company’s Baby Powder and other talc products were contaminated by asbestos (though most claimed they had caused ovarian cancer rather than mesothelioma)... It is currently facing around 54,000 lawsuits related to talc in Baby Powder, but maintains that its products do not contain asbestos and do not cause cancer...