“A product mothers can trust’. Generations of mothers know this is the advertising promise behind Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder, the talc product with a fragrance that is among the most recognizable in the world.
But in 1999 it was a much different reality for Darlene Coker. The mother of two and manager of a massage school was dying from mesothelioma, a deadly lung cancer normally found in workers exposed to asbestos fibers while on the job.
Darlene wanted to know how she could have contracted this deadly disease. The answer: the Johnson & Johnson baby powder she used on her daughters and sprinkled on herself all her life, according to a lawsuit Darlene filed against the health care giant.
See the complete issue of Pamela Nichols's newsletter on the O'Connell and Aronowitz website.
