Scientists say that talcum baby powder doesn't cause cancer. Trial lawyers say it does. As usual, the lawyers win. Scientists, common sense, and Americans lose.
Johnson & Johnson
American science and industry are under threat by this complex, known to be an unholy alliance of activists and trial lawyers who deploy various pseudoscientific tricks to score multibillion-dollar lawsuits against large companies. No industry is safe from these deceptions.
Oklahoma now has 572 million extra dollars, thanks to a judge's ruling that Johnson & Johnson was partly responsible for the so-called opioid crisis. Other states will follow and J&J will cough up a bunch of money, regardless of whether the company did anything wrong or not. Other companies will be hit as well. Meanwhile, ponder these questions: Why would any company sell opioids from now on? And what will this mean for you?
The Missouri Court of Appeals reversed a jury's decision that awarded $72 million to a plaintiff who claimed Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder products caused her ovarian cancer. But the court's ruling was based on a jurisdictional issue, not the lack of scientific evidence underpinning her claim.
Here is ACSH's official list of this year's top 10 scares