“When I was a kid, everyone used it”: Woman blames Johnson & Johnson talc for her cancer | Johnson & Johnson
IIt was Sue Rizzello’s husband who persuaded her to see a doctor, concerned about bloating in her abdomen that was making her increasingly uncomfortable. Rizzello, then in her 40s, had assumed it was menopause-related weight gain, but agreed to go to her GP. “A smart replacement told me, ‘There’s something wrong here,’ and sent me for a blood test…And it saved my life.”
It was the worst news: Rizzello had stage 3 ovarian cancer that had started to spread. She would have to start chemotherapy immediately and prepare for the complete removal of her uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes and omentum, a procedure that would put her in immediate menopause.
It was the summer of 2012 and her chef husband was working at one of the Olympic venues in Windsor, near their then home in Slough. For Rizzello, however, “this whole summer has been a blur” of painful treatments, including a clinical trial so tough, he was told, that many others had not been able to complete it.
Six months later, the marketing consultant learned his cancer was gone. “But I was never the same again. It was huge. It was a shattering experience that really shook my confidence.”
Rizzello, now 60, was lucky, but she doesn’t believe her cancer was just “one of those things” — she thinks it was caused by talcum powder.
She is one of around 3,000 people based in Britain – the majority women – who launched a landmark legal action in London’s High Court on Thursday against pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, claiming they or a member of their family had contracted cancer after a lifetime of use of J&J’s baby powder.
Backed by a specialist law firm, the plaintiffs claim the US-based multinational knew for decades that its talc products could contain dangerous asbestos, but failed to warn consumers and continued to sell the products in the UK until 2023.
J&J denies the allegations. A spokesperson for Kenvue, J&J’s two-year-old former consumer health division, said the talc used in baby powder complied with regulations, did not contain asbestos and did not cause cancer.
Rizzello says she didn’t know the origin of her illness, after genetic testing showed she did not carry the BRCA genes that significantly increase the risk of ovarian cancer. “And then I found out about the talcum powder allegations, and I thought, wait.”
“I’ve used talcum powder my whole life. I mean, when I was a kid, everyone did it,” she says, whether after swimming or after a bath. “It was just always there. It was always something you used. I’m totally convinced that it was the cause of my own illness, and the whole nightmare of treatment and trials that followed.”
J&J is the subject of long-running lawsuits in the United States over similar allegations of links between cancer and talc, which it fully disputes. Two years ago, the company spun off its consumer health division under the name Kenvue, which is responsible for talc-related claims outside the United States and Canada.
Kenvue said: “We deeply sympathize with people living with cancer. We understand that they and their families want answers – that’s why the facts are so important. The high-quality cosmetic grade talc used in Johnson’s baby powder met all required regulatory standards, did not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.”
Two years ago, to mark the tenth anniversary of her being given the all-clear, Rizzello asked friends to sponsor her to shave her hair again to raise money for cancer charities, in memory of others with the disease who did not survive. “I felt like I really had to do something,” she says. “A lot of the women I met along the way had passed away, and so I always feel like it’s as much about them as it is about me.”
“I value certain things a lot more than I used to. I think I’ve always dreaded the idea of getting old. I don’t mind getting old now, and I’m very grateful to have the chance to grow old.”
