I’m one of 100,000 people who got CANCER from J&J baby powder
A Nebraska woman claims she had to have a hysterectomy and was robbed of the chance to grow her family after baby powder caused cancerous tumors in her ovaries.
Lora Stahl, 56, is one of tens of thousands of patients suing Johnson & Johnson over claims that the company’s talc products contributed to their deadly tumors.
Ms Stahl was diagnosed with stage 2 ovarian cancer at the age of 35 and doctors had to remove her uterus, ovaries and part of her cervix to stop the disease from spreading to other parts of her body.
She told DailyMail.com, “I was still in my childbearing years, my husband and I were still young. I lay there and it hit me, “Oh my God, I can’t have any more kids. We don’t have a family anymore, we don’t have a choice. It’s not my choice anymore.”
The operations were successful, but Mrs. Stahl and her husband Herb fell into financial ruin, as Lora was unable to continue working and her husband’s employer unexpectedly closed its doors.
Mrs. Stahl, pictured here with her husband Herb and grandson, is now happily cancer-free
Mr. Stahl went to work on a Friday, which happened to be a payday, and found the doors locked and a notice saying the business was closed.
“We were shocked,” Lora said.
Because they lost their jobs, they also lost their health insurance and subsequently their home.
J&J agreed earlier this week to pay nearly $9 billion to settle about 40,000 lawsuits, many of them from women with ovarian cancer or mesothelioma, a cancer of the thin tissue lining the lungs, chest wall and abdomen.
The settlement is believed to be the largest in the history of drug company payouts.
Ms. Stahl told DailyMail.com that her ordeal began about 20 years ago when a pregnancy test returned a positive result.
She and her husband Herb already had three daughters aged three, five and seven, but they wanted to keep the family growing.
What should have been one of the happiest moments in the couple’s lives took a shocking turn.
An ultrasound revealed that the positive result was caused by a mass of tumors on her ovaries. The cancer also began to spread to other parts of her pelvis.
Mrs. Stahl has three daughters and seven healthy grandchildren, a fact she doesn’t take for granted. She told DailyMail.com: ‘There was a time when I didn’t think that would happen’
Ms. Stahl said, “My life changed from that point on because that’s when he said I think we’re dealing with something, possibly ovarian cancer, and it kind of became a blur for a while.”
Her life was turned upside down and plans for her family’s future were thwarted.
Johnson & Johnson baby powder, a staple in American homes for decades, was a part of Mrs. Stahl’s life until her diagnosis.
She started using it when she was “probably 12 years old.”
Talc is a drying agent commonly used in cosmetics and personal care products. It is believed to be generally quite harmless.
But the naturally occurring mineral is often found in the same mines as the cancer-causing asbestos.
While the Food and Drug Administration has reported a “possible association between the use of talc-containing powders in the genital area and the occurrence of ovarian cancer,” those studies “have not conclusively demonstrated such an association, or, if there was an association, what risk factors may play a role.’
The greatest health risk comes from inhaling asbestos. Lung cancer is the leading cause of death in individuals exposed to asbestos, followed by mesothelioma, a cancer that primarily affects the tissue membrane surrounding the lungs.
It is believed that talcum powder containing asbestos could cause ovarian cancer if powders used for feminine hygiene purposes were to travel through the vagina, uterus, and fallopian tubes to the ovaries.
Mrs. Stahl said, “I never even knew in my whole life that taking talcum powder could give me ovarian cancer.”
J&J, meanwhile, insisted their product could not have caused her life-changing injuries.
A spokesperson for the company told DailyMail.com: “We deeply sympathize with everyone suffering from cancer and know they are looking for answers. That’s why the facts are so important – and the facts are that research, clinical evidence and more than 40 years of research by independent medical experts have confirmed that Johnson’s baby powder is safe, contains no asbestos and does not cause cancer.”
At the time, doctors were unaware that the cancer could be linked to long-term use of talcum powder.
Since then, findings linking the compound to ovarian cancer have been mixed. A 1982 case-control study was the first to make a connection.
Ms. Stahl said she started reading about the J&J baby powder controversy about seven years ago when she contacted her now-lawyer for advice.
Once asbestos fibers enter the body, they can become permanently embedded in soft tissue and, over time, cause severe cellular damage and inflammation.
Controversial talc-based baby powder manufacturer Johnson & Johnson has faced years of litigation costing millions of dollars to settle claims that formulas containing asbestos caused cancer in long-term users.
Although she is now cancer-free, the ordeal Mrs. Stahl endured in her 30s was devastating for her, Herb, and their three daughters who were only three, five, and seven years old at the time.
Instead of being able to remove the offending mass through laparoscopy – a minimally invasive surgical technique – surgeons had to cut open her entire torso to remove all of the cancerous tissue.
They had to surgically remove part of her cervix, her ovaries and her uterus, putting her into menopause at age 33.
She added that she has osteoporosis, thinning of her bones that causes agonizing pain, which started when she entered menopause.
She said, “We just lost everything. And I’m so glad I’m here, but I’m so angry that I had to go through that. Just to tell you. It makes me so angry.’
Johnson & Johnson has not admitted any wrongdoing in a lawsuit against it.
The proposed $9 billion settlement is subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.
That sum surpasses the $6 billion some members of the infamous Sackler family, several of whom were heads at OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, will have to pay over the course of 18 years to settle a mountain of lawsuits alleging that it helped drive the opioid epidemic.
Despite this, the company claims its powder has always been safe and admits no wrongdoing.
The company in 2018 said: ‘Baby powder from Johnson & Johnson is safe and asbestos-free. Studies of more than 100,000 men and women show that talc does not cause cancer or asbestos-related diseases.’
The company announced last year that it would start using cornstarch in all the baby powder it sells around the world.
While the products on store shelves today may be safe, the talc at issue has been sold and used in a mountain of lawsuits over the past six decades.
In the 1950s, a Ohio lab in charge of testing Johnson & Johnson’s talcum powder describes the contaminants in J&J’s Italian supplier’s product as fibrous and a crystalline needle-like compound called tremolite, a heat-resistant form of asbestos that can be easily inhaled or ingested.
In 1976, while the FDA was considering setting limits on the content of asbestos in cosmetics, J&J insisted that no asbestos was found in “any sample of talc produced between December 1972 and October 1973.”
But in truth, at least three tests asbestos had been found in his talc by three different laboratories between 1972 and 1975, including a “quite high” amount in one sample.
In the intervening years in the 2000s, outside laboratories testing J&J’s powder had produced similar results, according to a 2018 bomb investigation by Reuters into the company’s practices.
Ms Stahl said her anger at Johnson & Johnson only deepened when she learned about other women going through similar health crises, prompting her to contact the law firm Beasley Allen about six years ago to join the class action lawsuit.
‘[Johnson & Johnson’s] name means nothing to me now. I’m at the point where they owe it to the thousands of people who have suffered and are alive or dead, their families who have suffered.”
And while she’s still angry and hoping for justice, Mrs. Stahl doesn’t take her happiness for granted, knowing that her encounter with cancer could very well have been fatal.
“I am so happy that my children still see me every day and that I have now been married to my husband for 32 years. But there was a time when I didn’t think that would happen. I thought I would leave my husband with three little girls to face the world.
“And I thank God every day that it didn’t turn out that way. But you know, there are people who are not so lucky. That’s just how it is. So I try to live every day to the fullest.’