Published August 2, 2026
A California jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $966 million to the family of Mae Moore, an 88-year-old woman who died of mesothelioma after decades of using the company's talc-based baby powder. The verdict is one of the largest to date in the sprawling talc litigation, which now includes more than 68,000 lawsuits pending in a federal multidistrict litigation in New Jersey.
The case alleged that Moore's mesothelioma — a cancer almost exclusively linked to asbestos exposure — resulted from asbestos contamination in the talc used in J&J's Baby Powder. J&J has consistently maintained its talc products were safe and asbestos-free, and has said it will appeal the verdict.
Most talc lawsuits allege ovarian cancer from perineal use, tied to the talc itself rather than asbestos contamination. Mesothelioma claims like this one instead argue the raw talc was contaminated with asbestos during mining or processing — a claim J&J has fought especially hard, since it implicates the company's supply chain rather than just the safety of talc as a substance. Large mesothelioma verdicts have historically been harder for J&J to overturn on appeal than ovarian cancer verdicts, because the causal link between asbestos and mesothelioma is far less scientifically contested.
This verdict lands amid a separate, ongoing fight in the federal MDL: J&J recently asked the court to dismiss thousands of ovarian cancer claims after plaintiffs' lawyers withdrew two expert witnesses who had been expected to testify that talc use causes ovarian cancer. That motion, if granted, would affect a different subset of the litigation than the mesothelioma claims — a reminder that "talc litigation" isn't one uniform case, but several distinct legal fights running in parallel.
Whether you're pursuing an ovarian cancer or a mesothelioma claim, the strength of your case depends heavily on your specific product-use history and medical records. See Atumio's talcum powder case page to learn more.