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Groton Daily Independent
Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 053 ~ 32 of 45
the jury that Johnson & Johnson knew about the risks of talc and ovarian cancer,” Robinson said. “Johnson & Johnson had many warning bells over a 30 year period but failed to warn the women who
were buying its product,” he said.
Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in a statement that the company will appeal the
jury’s decision. She says while the company sympathizes with women suffering from ovarian cancer that scienti c evidence supports the safety of Johnson’s baby powder.
The verdict came after a St. Louis, Missouri jury in May awarded $110.5 million to a Virginia woman who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012.
She had blamed her illness on her use of the company’s talcum powder-containing products for more than 40 years.
Besides that case, three other trials in St. Louis had similar outcomes last year — with juries awarding damages of $72 million, $70.1 million and $55 million, for a combined total of $307.6 million.
Another St. Louis jury in March rejected the claims of a Tennessee woman with ovarian and uterine cancer who blamed talcum powder for her cancers.
Two similar cases in New Jersey were thrown out by a judge who said the plaintiffs’ lawyers did not presented reliable evidence linking talc to ovarian cancer.
More than 1,000 other people have led similar lawsuits. Some who won their lawsuits won much lower amounts, illustrating how juries have wide latitude in awarding monetary damages.
Johnson & Johnson is preparing to defend itself and its baby powder at upcoming trials in the U.S., Goodrich said.
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Associated Press writer Amanda Lee Myers contributed to this report. ___
Follow Michael Balsamo on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MikeBalsamo1 .
Italy quake rocks resort island of Ischia, at least 1 dead By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press
ROME (AP) — An earthquake rattled the Italian resort island of Ischia at the peak of tourist season Mon- day night, killing at least one person and trapping a half dozen others under collapsed homes.
Police said all but one of the people known to be trapped were responding to rescuers and were expected to be extracted alive, including three children. One person, however, wasn’t responding, raising worries the death toll could increase, said Giovanni Salerno of the nancial police.
Italy’s national volcanology institute said the temblor struck a few minutes before 9 p.m., just as many people were having dinner. The hardest-hit area was Casamicciola, on the northern part of the island.
There was great discrepancy in the magnitude reported: Italy’s national vulcanology agency put the initial magnitude at 3.6, though it later revised it to a 4.0 sustained magnitude. It put the epicenter in the waters just off the island and a depth of 5 kilometers (3 miles). The U.S. Geological Survey and the European- Mediterranean Seismological Center gave it a 4.3 magnitude, with a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles).
While such discrepancies and revisions are common, Italian of cials complained that the Italian agency’s initial low 3.6-magnitude greatly underestimated the power of the temblor.
At least one hotel and parts of a hospital were evacuated. A doctor at the Rizzoli hospital, Roberto Al- locca, told Sky TG24 that some 26 people were being treated for minor injuries at a makeshift emergency room set up on the hospital grounds. He said the situation was calm and under control.
Salerno con rmed one woman was killed by falling masonry from a church. At least three people were extracted from the rubble alive, the civil protection said, adding that the island had sustained at least 14 aftershocks.
Civil protection crews, already on the island in force to ght the forest res that have been ravaging southern Italy, were checking the status of the buildings that suffered damage. Other rescue crews, as well as dogs trained to search for people under rubble, were arriving on ferries from the mainland.