Pennsylvania Jury Finds J&J Liable in Talc Baby Powder Ovarian Cancer Case

A Pennsylvania state-court jury in Philadelphia has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $250,000 to the family of Gayle Emerson, finding the company liable in a case blaming its talc baby powder for her ovarian cancer. The jury reached its verdict on Friday, February 14, 2026. The verdict comes as the company continues to face thousands of talc-related lawsuits and ongoing fights over whether plaintiffs can present scientific expert testimony linking its talc products to cancer.

The Pennsylvania plaintiffs alleged Emerson used J&J's talc baby powder from 1969 to 2017, and she sued the company in 2019 before dying six months later at age 68 from metastatic ovarian cancer. In February 2026, a Philadelphia jury found J&J responsible for the death of Gayle Emerson, a woman who used J&J baby powder for more than 45 years and died of ovarian cancer.

In January 2026, a federal judge ruled that expert witnesses for talc victims should be allowed to testify about the link between talcum powder use and ovarian cancer, describing in a 685-page report that the experts "applied reliable methodologies" to establish the connection. In the federal proceedings, a court-appointed special master has recommended allowing plaintiffs' experts to testify that J&J's talc products can cause ovarian cancer, while also allowing the company's experts to counter that position. The judge in the federal talc litigation will decide whether to accept or reject the recommendation.

As of April 2026, over 90,000 talcum powder lawsuits have been filed against Johnson & Johnson. The company has repeatedly tried to channel claims into bankruptcy proceedings through a strategy known as the "Texas Two-Step," creating subsidiaries to absorb the lawsuits and then filing for Chapter 11 protection, but the most recent court rejection came in April 2025.

Court records show the company knew of potential asbestos risks associated with its talc as early as the 1970s and continued selling the product for decades before switching to cornstarch. In 2019, one of the FDA's tests found asbestos in a J&J baby powder sample. J&J began transitioning its baby powder from talc to cornstarch in 2020, completing the switch by 2023. The company continues to maintain that its talc products are safe, don't contain asbestos, and don't cause cancer.