0:00

Support

0:02

for Swindled comes from Simply Safe.

0:04

Here at Swindled, there's one crime we don't talk

0:07

about enough. and that's how some home security

0:09

companies charge you an insane amount

0:11

every month. It's highway robbery.

0:14

Simply safe home security is different. they

0:16

keep you safe and help you save. In

0:18

fact, right now, our listeners can get forty

0:20

percent off simply safe's advanced security

0:22

system by using trust simply

0:24

safe because That's simply safe.

0:26

Your safety is the only thing that matters.

0:29

I love simply safe because it keeps me

0:31

safe. My entire home is blanketed

0:33

in protection with advanced sensors

0:35

for every room window and door. And

0:37

crystal clear HD security cameras for

0:40

inside and outside. There are even

0:42

hazard sensors that instantly detect

0:44

fires, floods, and other threats to my home.

0:46

And the best part, you can control the entire

0:48

system with an app on your phone. What

0:50

a deal? Don't miss this chance

0:52

to save big when you protect your home with the best.

0:55

Get forty percent off your order when you visit simply

0:57

save dot com slash swindled today. customize

1:00

the perfect system for your home in just few

1:02

minutes. That's simply safe dot com

1:04

slash windowed. Go today. There's

1:06

no safe, like, simply safe.

1:12

Annie had an earache on a Saturday

1:15

of all days. So her mom

1:17

brought her to a minute clinic at CVS where

1:19

you can see a provider, fill a prescription, and

1:21

grab essentials like pain relief products,

1:24

all in one visit. Even on

1:26

evenings and weekends, you can even see us

1:28

online with telehealth options.

1:30

For quality affordable care on your

1:32

schedule, visit MinuteClinic at CVS.

1:35

That's how healthier happens together. Services

1:38

vary by location. Prescriptions can be obtained at pharmacy

1:40

of choice visit men at clinic dot com for details.

1:43

This episode of Swindled may

1:45

contain graphic descriptions or audio

1:47

recordings of disturbing events, which

1:49

may not be suitable for all audiences. listener

1:52

discretion is advised.

1:56

So this is a vaginal mesh.

1:58

It's used when women have

1:59

prolapse or bladder and condensate, normally

2:02

bought on by childbirth, and

2:04

it's often made from polypropylene.

2:08

Transvaginal mesh products were

2:10

approved for use in nineteen ninety six

2:12

after being tested on rats. Gynecologist

2:15

began using the surgical mesh to repair

2:18

urinary incontinence and pelvic

2:20

organ prolapse conditions in humans

2:22

that can sometimes occur following child birth

2:25

or from old age. The message

2:27

is permanently implanted in the vaginal

2:29

wall to serve as reinforcement for

2:31

weakened pelvic muscle like a little flexible

2:33

plastic hammock that keeps everything in

2:35

its proper place. Within

2:38

a decade, millions of women worldwide

2:40

had received the urogynecological mesh

2:42

implants, most with life

2:44

changing positive results. However,

2:47

a sizable minority had the opposite

2:49

experience. In this case, a sizable

2:51

minority meant tens of thousands of real

2:53

human beings who were all seeing the same

2:55

thing. Transvaginal mesh implant

2:58

had ruined their lives. In

3:01

time, reportedly, the mesh shifts

3:03

out of place or erodes the tissue in

3:05

which it had been implanted. The bleeding

3:07

starts followed by chronic pain and nerve

3:09

damage. In some cases, the mesh

3:11

migrate so drastically that it perforates

3:14

the organs it was meant to port. These

3:16

protrusions can lead to severe infections,

3:18

which can and have resulted

3:21

in death. Removing

3:23

the mesh's pass but not easy.

3:25

The device is designed to fuse with the

3:27

pelvic tissue over time to become

3:29

part of the body. The New York Times

3:32

lock into the removal process to pulling

3:34

chewing gum out of long thick hair.

3:36

And that's only for the most fortunate. Undergoing

3:39

additional often numerous operations

3:41

was not feasible for everybody.

3:44

And then I began

3:46

to have what felt

3:48

like period of pain,

3:49

but very intense period campaigns

3:51

that would go on for days and weeks

3:54

and weeks. And I was really referred back

3:56

to my gynecologist who said

3:58

it must be a wound.

3:59

I had a full

4:02

abdominal hysterectomy to try

4:04

and rectify my pain. And

4:06

of course, I still had it there. So

4:10

I lost my womb, but no reason

4:12

when I was

4:12

thirty nine. That's

4:14

Claire Cooper. She

4:16

told the BBC that she first began

4:18

experiencing pain three years after her

4:20

vaginal mesh was implanted, but nobody

4:22

could tell her why. She went back and

4:24

forth between a general practitioner and

4:26

a gynecologist just who finally decided

4:28

the source of her pain must be related

4:31

to her womb, so they removed

4:33

it. Claire Cooper was talked

4:35

into a total hysterectomy. but

4:37

the pain never went away. Still,

4:39

the doctors had no answers. One

4:41

even suggested that it was all in her

4:43

head And

4:44

he looked at me scratching the face and he said, hello,

4:46

we've had you out on an operating table. There's

4:49

nothing there to see. You

4:51

are depressed.

4:53

No, sir. The pain was very real,

4:55

and Claire Cooper lived with it for many

4:57

years. If you could call it living,

5:00

it hurt just to walk sitting

5:02

down could be unbearable sometimes. Sex

5:04

with their husband hadn't been a consideration

5:07

in four and a half years. I want the

5:09

procedure band. I want the material

5:11

band. Claire Cooper told the BBC.

5:14

Sixty one different medical device companies manufactured

5:17

the urogynecological mesh.

5:20

Claire Cooper's just so happened to be

5:22

made by Ethicon, a subsidiary

5:24

of John and Johnson, which

5:26

based its product on the original by

5:28

Boston Scientific, which was

5:30

pulled from the market due to safety issues

5:32

two years after it was reduced. Boston

5:35

Scientific's original version had been approved through

5:37

the FDA's five ten k process

5:40

for its similarity to other surgical

5:42

measures already on the mark it. And

5:44

in order to fast track their own approval

5:46

processes, every manufacturer

5:48

that entered the market based their

5:50

vaginal mesh products on Boston Scientific's

5:52

original. designed flaws and all.

5:55

Human trials were not required. Claire

5:58

Cooper and thousands of other victims

5:59

around the world

6:01

were the human trials.

6:02

At least twice a month, Chrissy

6:05

Bradstreet ends up in hospital.

6:07

I lay in bed

6:08

all day in agony.

6:09

I don't have a life with my friends,

6:12

my Stanley. Three years

6:14

ago, she had plastic mesh like

6:16

this implanted to lift her

6:18

bladder and stop incontinence following

6:20

the birth of her children. BUT SHE SAYS

6:22

THAT IT LEFT HER IN PAIN AND EVEN

6:24

AFTER THE MESH WAS TAKEN OUT, SHE STILL

6:26

SUFFERES WITH SEERING AND CONSTANT

6:28

INFECTIONS. that no antibiotics

6:30

can kill. It feels like I'm dying

6:32

from the inside. And

6:36

I've lost sense of normalcy

6:39

in my life. In

6:41

two thousand eight, after receiving thousands

6:43

of reports, the US Food and Drug

6:45

Administration and issued its first public

6:48

health notice related to the severe

6:50

complications associated with transvaginal

6:52

mesh, but described them as

6:54

rare. Soon after,

6:56

researchers determined that between fifteen

6:58

and twenty five percent of implant patients

7:01

would experience issues. And usually,

7:03

those issues were far more severe than

7:05

the conditions the was intended to treat.

7:08

According to the New York Times, from

7:10

two thousand eight to two thousand ten,

7:12

there was a fivefold increase in reports

7:14

to the FDA about complications with

7:16

a mesh. In January twenty twelve,

7:18

the agency ordered makers of the implants to

7:20

conduct post market surveillance studies

7:22

to address concerns related to the safety

7:25

and effectiveness of the products. By

7:27

June twenty twelve, Johnson and Johnson

7:29

had announced that it would stop selling its mesh

7:32

worldwide.

7:33

This was not a recall.

7:35

Johnson and Johnson and Ethicon wanted to

7:37

make that abundantly clear. The

7:39

company was not discontinuing its vaginal

7:41

mesh products over safety and efficacy

7:43

concerns in

7:44

a statement.

7:45

J and J stressed that the decision was

7:47

based on the products quote, commercial viability

7:49

in light of changing market dynamics.

7:52

That's

7:52

all. Johnson

7:55

and Johnson could not admit fault. because

7:57

over the next few years, the company would be

7:59

named in thousands of lawsuits filed

8:01

by more than one hundred thousand plaintiffs

8:03

across the globe. The first

8:05

case to go to trial in February two

8:07

thousand thirteen belonged to a

8:09

forty seven year old nurse from South Dakota

8:12

named Linda Gross. after

8:14

a two thousand six operation for pelvic

8:16

prolapse at the Con's transvaginal

8:18

mesh left a Linda in constant debilitating

8:21

pain. it took eighteen operations to

8:23

remove and repair, over four

8:25

hundred visits to doctors and physical therapists.

8:28

She was never the same again.

8:30

Who you see standing here now, but is not

8:32

who I was, Linda Gross told the jury.

8:36

After five days of deliberations, the

8:38

jury awarded Linda one point one

8:40

million dollars for her pain and suffering.

8:42

one hundred eighty thousand dollars for lost wages,

8:45

five hundred thousand for future lost

8:47

wages, three hundred eighty five

8:49

thousand for past medical treatment,

8:51

one million dollars for future

8:53

medical treatment, and one hundred eighty

8:55

thousand dollars for her husband's loss of

8:57

companionship and conjugal effect

8:59

more than three point three million

9:01

dollars in total. Linda Gross'

9:03

verdict gave hope to all of those with

9:05

pending litigation. Johnson

9:07

and Johnson who claimed the dangers of

9:09

the operation were inherent must

9:11

have been filled with dread. It was going

9:13

to cost billions of dollars to settle all

9:16

the cases. The company wasn't the

9:18

only one who saw the writing on the wall.

9:20

Regulatory lawyers hired telemarketing

9:22

firms to recruit plaintiffs. They obtained

9:24

the medical records and cold called

9:26

recipients of the vaginal mesh implants at

9:28

home to inform them that their life was

9:30

in danger and about pending

9:32

litigation. they even coaxed some of

9:34

them to have their mesh implant surgically

9:36

removed. The lawyers had

9:38

realized that the settlements tended to be more

9:40

lucrative in those cases. Some

9:42

law firms even partnered with specialized

9:45

financial institutions to fund the

9:47

removal surgeries for potential plaintiffs at

9:49

disgustingly high interest rates.

9:51

Those financial institutions would

9:53

be reimbursed once the cases

9:55

were settled After accounting for the accrued

9:57

interest on the surgical loans and the

9:59

lawyer's fees, there was usually very

10:01

little left for the plaintiffs Many

10:03

had undergone brutal surgeries and

10:05

makeshift strip mall medical offices.

10:07

God bless the USA. Oh,

10:10

and if you get a chance, save the

10:12

queen too.

10:13

I'm not a woman that

10:15

I used to be. I feel

10:17

like I helped this No hope,

10:19

but I thought I think I'd be better

10:21

off dead if I'm like this. You know,

10:23

I mean, I don't want to live like

10:26

honestly. I've

10:28

got I

10:30

don't really like this. I

10:32

want my old clothes back.

10:33

Leslie used to be the girl you'd find

10:36

dancing on tables, loving life,

10:38

and living it to the full.

10:40

Now after a twenty minute operation

10:42

to help cure her mild incontinence.

10:44

She's in chronic pain.

10:46

She can't walk. She's lost her job

10:48

and her marriage and is suicidal.

10:53

Leslie Elder, a fifty year old mother of

10:55

two from Dorset, at the mesh

10:57

implanted in two thousand ten, ever

10:59

since she has been unable to walk without

11:01

a cane. She can't work anymore. She

11:03

says her husband left her because she couldn't

11:06

have sex. All she has left is

11:08

depression, PTSD, and

11:10

constant crippling pain. And

11:11

guess what? It was all for

11:13

nothing. Leslie Elder

11:14

had been misdiagnosed. The mesh

11:16

was unnecessary for her condition,

11:19

so she sued the National Health

11:21

Service claiming she needed two and a half

11:23

million pounds While

11:25

seated in a wheelchair, miss Elder told the

11:27

court that the pelvic mass procedure had

11:29

destroyed her life. She was

11:31

practically confined to her house, She couldn't

11:33

even travel for her daughter's hen party on

11:35

the beautiful island of Ibiza.

11:37

Leslie Elder just wanted her old

11:39

life back. The court ruled

11:41

that Leslie's two and a half million pound claim

11:43

was, quote, grossly exaggerated

11:45

and awarded her one hundred twenty

11:47

thousand pounds instead Perhaps

11:49

the court was correct in having

11:51

its suspicions. Months

11:53

later, photographs posted on Facebook

11:55

tagged Leslie Elder in Ibiza.

11:58

She's standing unaided, wearing

12:00

a straw hat and a sash that reads

12:02

mother. When confronted Leslie told

12:04

the court that it was a simple holiday.

12:06

Miss Elder denied that she had traveled for her

12:08

daughter, Tanya's hand party, which she

12:10

had previously complained about missing,

12:13

then why a judge asked Does

12:15

the shirt you are wearing in the photograph

12:17

say Tanya's hand party?

12:20

Checkmate. Leslie Elder had

12:22

no explanation. She'd also been

12:24

recorded by a private investigator shopping

12:26

and walking her dog. The

12:28

court found that Leslie Elder had

12:30

a actively attempted to defraud the NHS

12:32

out of more than two and a half million

12:34

pounds. She was charged with contempt

12:36

and sentenced to five months in jail.

12:39

Leslie Elder was not present for her sentencing,

12:41

though. She had been taken to the

12:43

hospital earlier in the hearing after she

12:45

was seen swallowing a handful of

12:47

tranquilizer pills We knew

12:49

this morning a major health alert for millions

12:51

of women, US health regulators are

12:53

halting the sale and distribution of surgical

12:55

mesh used to repair pelvic

12:57

conditions. The move comes after years

12:59

of reported complications from the

13:01

implants. Tens of thousands of

13:03

lawsuits have been filed by women who have

13:05

reported injuries from the devices.

13:08

On

13:09

April sixteenth two thousand nineteen,

13:11

the United States Food and Drug Administration

13:14

ordered manufacturers to stop

13:16

selling and distributing transvaginal

13:18

mesh for pelvic organ prolapse

13:20

conditions. The product had already been banned

13:22

in Australia and New Zealand a year

13:24

earlier. Australia had also brought

13:26

a major class action lawsuit against

13:28

Johnson and Johnson involving seven hundred

13:30

patients. In the UK, patients

13:32

sued the manufacturers as well as the

13:34

NHS. In America, forty

13:36

one states and DC sued

13:38

the company. alleging that it had

13:40

misrepresented the risk of its

13:42

mesh implants. Today,

13:43

the court was scathing in its

13:46

findings with respect to

13:48

Ethicon and Johnson and Johnson. And

13:51

had found that their conduct

13:53

was misleading that the product should not

13:55

have been sold and that

13:59

consumers have suffered

13:59

harm as a result. This

14:02

case

14:02

is the largest women's health class

14:05

action in Australia's history and a

14:07

landmark decision.

14:09

In

14:10

total, the cases have resulted in over

14:13

eight billion dollars in settlements. Johnson

14:15

and Johnson has denied any wrongdoing.

14:17

After the Australian verdict that spokesperson

14:20

for the company said, quote, Ethicon

14:22

believes that the company acted ethically

14:24

and responsibly in the research

14:26

development and supply of these products.

14:29

Just how ethically and responsibly

14:31

did Ethicon Act, we

14:33

will never know It was

14:35

discovered in two thousand fourteen,

14:37

while the future J and J CEO

14:40

Alex Skorsky was chief of the

14:42

Ethicon subsidiary that the company lost

14:44

or destroyed thousands of documents and

14:46

computer files related to the

14:48

development of its transvaginal mesh

14:50

products. All shucks.

14:52

There was probably nothing to see

14:54

anyway. However,

14:56

amid the pelvic mesh litigation,

14:59

Johnson and Johnson was also battling claims

15:01

that its beloved baby powder

15:03

was causing cancer. Lucky

15:05

for us, Documents related to

15:07

that case remain intact and

15:10

shocking is an understatement.

15:12

One of the world's largest

15:14

and most trusted companies knowingly sells

15:16

a dangerous product for decades

15:18

on this episode of swindled.

15:23

They brought

15:23

government officials accounted

15:25

creator by the basis of their lives. They

15:27

long. They really don't have the greatest

15:29

players in the taxpayer

15:30

dollars. They're the waste that we maintain

15:32

tens of millions of dollars in

15:33

a million

15:44

Support

15:50

for swindled comes from Simply

15:52

Safe Here it's Wendell. There's one

15:54

crime we don't talk about enough, and that's

15:56

how some home security companies charge you

15:58

an insane amount every

15:59

month. It's highway robbery. simply

16:02

safe home security is different. They

16:04

keep you safe and help you save. In

16:06

fact, right now, our listeners can get forty

16:08

percent off simply safe's advanced security

16:10

system. I personally

16:12

use and trust, simply safe.

16:14

Because that's simply safe. Your

16:16

safety is the only thing that matters.

16:19

I love simply safe because it blankets my

16:21

home and protection with advanced sensors

16:23

for every room window and door.

16:25

Crystal clear HD security cameras for

16:27

inside and outside, smarter

16:29

ways to detect motion, that only

16:31

alert me when a threat is real, and

16:33

even hazard sensors that instantly

16:35

detect fires floods and other threats to my

16:37

home. And the best part I can

16:39

control the entire system with an app on my

16:41

phone. Don't miss this chance

16:43

to save BIC when you protect your home with

16:45

the best Get forty percent off

16:47

your order when you visit simply safe dot

16:49

com slash window today. Customize

16:51

the perfect system for your home in a few

16:54

minutes. That's simply safe dot com

16:56

slash swindled. Go today. There's

16:58

no safe like, simply

16:59

safe.

17:02

We

17:05

believe that

17:08

in serving those who

17:10

sell our products we

17:12

serve ourselves. I am

17:16

sure you agree that this

17:18

philosophy is timeless.

17:22

Johnson and

17:22

Johnson had modest beginnings. In

17:24

eighteen eighty six, Robert Wood Johnson

17:26

and his younger brothers leased a small

17:29

New Brunswick, New Jersey factory.

17:31

to manufacture and sell surgical dressings and

17:34

bandages. One hundred thirty five years

17:36

later, Johnson and Johnson is a

17:38

massive conglomerate comprised of more than

17:40

two hundred fifty different operating

17:42

companies and one hundred thousand

17:44

employees in sixty different countries

17:46

with annual revenues exceeding ninety

17:48

billion dollars. It's

17:50

the second largest biotech company,

17:52

the fourth largest pharmaceutical company,

17:54

the world's largest manufacturer

17:56

of medical devices and diagnostic tools

17:58

But those aren't the products for

18:01

which Johnson and Johnson is best

18:03

known. This is the company that invented the

18:05

Band Aid and the First Aid Kit.

18:07

They bought the manufacturer of Tylenol.

18:10

Household names like Neutrogena, Listerine,

18:12

Bysine, Rogaine, Benadryl, Sudafed

18:15

of Vino. These are all Johnson and

18:17

Johnson products. However,

18:19

the company's sacred cow is

18:21

Johnson's baby powder. which

18:23

was introduced in eighteen ninety three. It's also been

18:26

referred to as the Golden Egg and the

18:28

Trustmark of the company. Johnson

18:31

and Johnson essentially invented the

18:33

universally recognized scent of

18:35

a baby. I viewed

18:37

that name Johnson and Johnson as

18:39

a trustmark. not a

18:40

trademark. It was a

18:42

trustmark because when

18:44

moms and fathers

18:46

use our products on their babies,

18:49

they need to trust it. When people

18:51

take our medicines, they need to

18:53

trust it. Every good

18:55

and healthy relationship is built on

18:58

trust. Though baby powder

18:59

was a century removed from being one

19:01

of Johnson and Johnson's top sellers,

19:04

The comfort and safety that is synonymous

19:06

with that iconic white bottle remain the

19:08

basis of the company's entire

19:11

brand. It permeates your

19:13

earliest memories. That powdery

19:15

blanket of moisture free trust and

19:17

protection. It smells like grandma's

19:19

house, doesn't it? you'll never feel that

19:21

clean again. And it's all

19:23

thanks to talc, also known as

19:25

talcum or talcum powder. Sometimes

19:28

magnesium silicate Tauk is the

19:30

softest naturally occurring mineral

19:32

on Earth. It's been used in

19:34

cosmetics, chewing gum, condoms, and

19:36

hundreds of other products. It's the

19:38

primary ingredient in Johnson's

19:40

baby powder. Everybody knows

19:42

that. But what most people don't

19:44

realize is that talc is often mined in

19:46

proximity to asbestos. the

19:48

ones ubiquitous in highly

19:50

carcinogenic mineral used in insulation and

19:52

building materials until it was banned in

19:54

nineteen nine. As best

19:56

as, that's what caught Hershel Hopson's

19:58

attention in nineteen ninety

19:59

seven. His new client, Darling Coker

20:02

from Beaumont, Texas, never

20:04

worked in a factory or a mine a day

20:06

in her life. She had never been

20:08

exposed to asbestos, but Darling

20:10

had been diagnosed with mesothelioma.

20:12

an aggressive deadly cancer usually caused

20:14

by asbestos exposure. It

20:17

didn't make

20:17

sense until Herschel Hopkinson

20:21

discovered his client, Darling Coker, was a

20:23

lifelong user of Johnson's baby

20:25

powder. From previous careers,

20:27

the lawyer was familiar with how

20:29

Talco's mind, He requested research and

20:31

documents from Johnson and Johnson related

20:33

to asbestos testing and its mine

20:35

workers. The company refused

20:37

calling Hopson's request a baseless

20:39

fishing expedition. Even after

20:41

a

20:41

pathology report showed that Darling Coker's

20:44

lung tissue was riddled with four

20:46

different types of asbestos fibers.

20:48

The judge denied Hershel Hopkins'

20:50

request for discovery. There was no

20:52

concrete evidence that

20:54

Johnson's baby powder was responsible for the

20:56

plaintiff's condition. The

20:57

lawsuit was dropped. Twelve years

21:00

later, Darling Coker died.

21:02

Also, twelve

21:03

years later, the FDA commissioned

21:05

test of Johnson's baby powder after

21:07

a growing public concern.

21:09

That was the best this was found, but cells of the

21:12

baby powder had taken a hit after the

21:14

product had been linked to numerous

21:16

cases of ovarian cancer.

21:18

A

21:18

thousand lawsuits soon followed. The

21:21

first case

21:21

went to trial in two thousand

21:24

thirteen. DeAnne Berg A

21:26

position's assistant was only forty nine when she was

21:28

diagnosed with advanced cancer in her

21:31

ovaries. It didn't make sense. She told the New

21:33

York Post There

21:34

was no ovarian cancer in

21:36

my family. I didn't smoke. I wasn't

21:39

overweight. After

21:40

undergoing a total hysterectomy

21:42

within a week of her diagnosis,

21:44

DM learned from a pamphlet given to her by an oncologist.

21:46

The talcum powder had been implicated

21:48

in the development of ovarian cancer.

21:51

Like so

21:52

many other women, DeAnne Berg

21:54

had used Johnson's baby powder or Johnson

21:56

and Johnson's shower to shower powder. on

21:58

her perineum every day for forty

22:01

years to stay fresh. That

22:03

was the product's advertised purpose.

22:05

Johnson and Johnson specific quickly marketed the

22:07

latter as a feminine hygiene

22:09

product. The late eighties advertisement jingle

22:11

for shower to shower promise that just

22:13

the sprinkle a day helps keep

22:16

odor away. But

22:18

apparently, there was no match for ovarian

22:21

cancer. The theory is that when

22:23

talcum powder is applied to a woman's

22:25

genital area, The particles containing

22:27

trace amounts of asbestos, travel

22:29

to the ovaries through the cervix and line

22:31

the uterus and fallopian tube

22:33

where it wreaks havoc similar to the

22:34

way asbestos destroys the lungs and

22:37

other organs to cause mesothelioma. Deanne

22:39

Berg first

22:40

noticed an issue when she

22:42

started spotting between periods. What she thought were

22:44

premenopausal conditions turned

22:46

out to be ovarian cancer, and her

22:48

entire life was put on hold.

22:51

Deanne Berg

22:51

sued Johnson and Johnson. The company

22:53

offered her more than a million dollars to drop

22:55

the case and sign a confidentiality agreement

22:59

Diamberg

22:59

refused. She felt it

23:01

was more important to publicize the link

23:03

between talcum powder and ovarian

23:06

cancer.

23:06

Besides, what

23:07

good is money if you're dying

23:10

anyway? Voca

23:11

Milli, a jury in South Dakota, found

23:13

Johnson and Johnson negligent. but not

23:15

responsible for damages. De

23:17

Amber was not compensated a penny,

23:19

and her goal of forcing the company to

23:21

apply warning labels to its baby powder

23:24

was unsuccessful successful, but

23:26

all

23:26

was not lost. Dan

23:27

Berg's lawsuit paved the way for

23:30

others. The next

23:31

case to be heard in February

23:33

two thousand sixteen, belonged to Jacqueline

23:36

Fox. She had been

23:37

diagnosed with ovarian cancer in twenty

23:39

thirteen. She had sprinkled Johnson's baby

23:41

powder on her underwear part of her daily

23:43

routine for the past forty five years. This

23:45

time a jury

23:46

awarded the plaintiff seventy two

23:49

million dollars. even

23:50

though the plaintiff, Jacqueline Fox,

23:52

died four months before the verdict.

23:55

The

23:55

multimillion dollar decision in the US

23:57

marks the first TIME DAMAGES HAVE BEEN

24:00

AWARDED

24:00

OVER TOWK CLAIMS. JONTHEN AND JONTHEN

24:02

IS SAID TO BE CONSIDERING AN APPEAL, MORE

24:04

THAN one thousand similar cases are

24:07

pending, and lawyers now say

24:09

thousands more could be

24:11

filed. Thousands

24:12

more

24:14

were filed. Despite the

24:14

jury's decision in the first case, Johnson and

24:16

Johnson remained confident in its position that

24:18

there was no cause of association between

24:21

tau and ovarian cancer.

24:23

They proved it time and time again in their

24:26

lab. The company even launched a

24:28

website to extoll the safety of the talc

24:30

in its baby powder. That idea probably

24:32

came from the crisis management lawyers and

24:34

hired. Johnson and

24:35

Johnson CEO Alex Skorsky publicly

24:38

bowed to fight these nasty claims.

24:41

We're disappointed in some of the recent talc

24:43

verdict findings, and we always have a lot of empathy

24:45

from plaintiffs and the families that they

24:47

may represent. But in this case, we think

24:49

frankly it's inconsistent with more than one

24:51

hundred years of experience with

24:53

powder more than thirty years

24:55

of very compelling clinical evidence

24:57

So look in these we think the right thing to do is

24:59

to appeal it and to continue to

25:01

fight it, but we put safety and

25:03

quality first in everything that we do.

25:07

Too

25:07

bad, Johnson and

25:08

Johnson lost most of the early baby

25:10

powder cases related to ovarian cancer.

25:13

In May twenty sixteen, A

25:15

Missouri jury awarded fifty five million dollars to

25:17

one plaintiff. In two thousand seventeen,

25:19

a Missouri jury awarded one hundred ten

25:21

million dollars to another.

25:24

Later that year in August, the jury in

25:26

California awarded four hundred seventeen

25:28

million dollars to Eva at

25:30

Chaveria, a sixty three year old medical

25:32

receptionist from East LA Johnson

25:34

and

25:34

Johnson has been ordered to pay more

25:36

than four hundred million dollars in

25:38

a case tied to one of its most well

25:40

known products, baby powder, It's

25:42

not the first verdict against the company and this product,

25:45

but it is the largest and it may not be the

25:47

last.

25:47

Johnson and Johnson defended the safety of its

25:50

baby powder. instead it planned to appeal the

25:52

verdict, which it did in every

25:54

case. The science was

25:55

inconclusive and at best

25:58

inconsistent according to the company. Again,

26:00

according to j and j, there was no proven relationship

26:02

between Johnson's baby powder and

26:04

ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer

26:06

is a devastating diagnosis

26:09

and we deeply sympathize with the women and families

26:11

impacted by this disease, a spokesperson

26:13

for the company said in a statement.

26:16

We

26:16

will appeal verdict because we are guided

26:18

by the science, which supports the

26:20

safety of Johnson's baby powder.

26:23

Eva Echevarria died in September

26:26

twenty seventeen, and

26:27

the massive four hundred million dollar verdict

26:29

in her case was thrown out a month

26:31

later for insufficient evidence.

26:33

as was the seventy two million dollars awarded earlier to

26:35

the estate of Jacqueline Fox for

26:38

improper jurisdiction. Nine

26:40

thousand more cases to

26:42

go. essentially,

26:43

my cancer is terminal. I

26:45

wanted to spend time with my sons.

26:47

I wanted to spend time with my

26:50

grandchildren. I have a new one

26:52

coming in December, and I'm probably not gonna

26:54

have the chance to even get

26:56

to meet that one.

26:57

That's Tony Roberts. She

26:59

died from ovarian cancer at the age

27:01

of sixty one. Tony was one of

27:03

twenty two women who collectively sued Johnson

27:05

and Johnson in Saint Louis.

27:08

claiming that the baby powder and shallower to shallower body

27:10

powder caused their cancers. Yes, this

27:13

is terrible. Johnson and Johnson's lawyer

27:15

told the court in July twenty eighteen

27:17

but just because something terrible happened

27:20

doesn't mean Johnson and Johnson had anything

27:22

to do with it.

27:23

The jury disagreed jury

27:25

in St. Louis found that Johnson

27:27

and Johnson should pay four point

27:29

seven billion dollars in damages to

27:31

twenty two women who said their ovarian

27:34

cancer was caused by asbestos

27:36

in the company's signature baby

27:38

powder. Again, Johnson and Johnson said

27:40

it would appeal. According to the

27:42

company, this verdict like all the others

27:44

was based on junk science and

27:47

emotions. and distortions of historical

27:49

documents by the plaintiff's attorneys out for

27:51

nothing but personal gain.

27:53

What historical documents you ask?

27:56

ones that Johnson and Johnson tried

27:58

desperately unsuccessfully to keep

28:00

confidential throughout all of its baby

28:02

powder litigation.

28:03

fortunately for us, the general

28:06

public. In December twenty

28:08

eighteen, those documents would

28:10

finally see the light of

28:11

day.

28:13

Support

28:13

for Swindled

28:16

comes from Rocket Money. Do

28:18

you know how much your subscriptions really cost?

28:21

Most Americans think they spend about eighty

28:23

dollars a month on subscriptions when the

28:25

actual total is closer to two

28:27

hundred dollars plus. That's right. You could be

28:29

wasting hundreds of dollars each month on

28:31

subscriptions you don't even know about.

28:33

There's this app I love using that takes care

28:35

of that for me. It's called Rocket

28:37

Money, formerly known as true bill.

28:39

Before I started using Rocket Money,

28:41

I used to spend hours on the phone. It took

28:43

me at least thirty five minutes to cancel my

28:45

Cheesecake at the month subscription. It

28:48

only took me about three minutes to sign

28:50

up for it when I was in dire need of

28:52

cheesecake. But now that I'm up to my

28:54

eyebrows and cheesecake this company made it almost

28:56

impossible to leave so

28:58

annoying. I'm sure you can really eighty

29:00

percent of people have subscriptions they forgot

29:02

about. That's why from now on,

29:04

I will use Rocket Money, formerly known

29:07

as True Bill. And you

29:09

should too. Get rid of useless

29:11

subscriptions with Rocket Money now. to

29:13

rocket money dot com slash wimbledon.

29:15

Seriously, it could save you hundreds per year.

29:17

That's rocket money dot com

29:20

slash swindled.

29:38

Put on

29:44

the only summer under thing that will

29:46

keep you cooler and dry

29:48

and work comfortable than

29:50

if you were wearing nothing at

29:52

all. Put on Johnson's

29:54

baby powder. On

29:57

December fourteenth twenty eighteen,

29:59

two separate investigative reports,

30:02

one from the New York Times and the others

30:04

from Reuters, found that Johnson and Johnson

30:06

had been aware of possible asbestos

30:08

contamination in its baby powder

30:10

products for at least fifty years.

30:12

The reports were

30:12

based internal Johnson and

30:15

Johnson documents demonstrating how company

30:17

executives, my managers, scientists,

30:19

doctors, and lawyers spread it over the problem

30:21

and how to address it while failing to

30:23

disclose it to regulators or the public. New

30:25

tonight, a new

30:26

report suggests Johnson and

30:29

Johnson knew that its staple baby

30:31

powder had asbestos in it and

30:33

didn't do anything about the

30:35

problem. According to Lisa

30:36

Gearing at Reuters, her report

30:39

was the time many of the documents been made public.

30:41

They included company memos,

30:43

internal reports, company emails, test

30:45

results, and more. Until now,

30:47

Johnson

30:47

and Johnson have been able to

30:49

keep these records sealed by court order.

30:51

After seeing them, it's no

30:53

wonder why.

30:54

These records make it clear

30:57

that many people inside J and J were

30:59

aware that asbestos, a

31:01

known carcinogen, was

31:04

detect did in the ore

31:06

they mined, in the talc they

31:08

milled, and on occasion in the products they

31:10

sold. According

31:11

to Reuters in nineteen fifty

31:13

eight, Johnson and Johnson discovered that talc from its chief

31:15

source mine contain TRIMALIGHT.

31:17

TRIMALIGHT is one of six minerals that occur

31:19

in nature as crystalline fibers

31:21

known as asbestos. At this time,

31:23

the dangers of asbestos were not known.

31:26

Johnson and Johnson's only concern was that the

31:28

presence of Trimolite would make their baby

31:30

powder scratchy. But

31:32

by nineteen sixty nine, the health concerns

31:34

related to asbestos were becoming

31:36

more apparent, dead gear, and a memo

31:38

Johnson and Johnson company, doctor advised

31:41

executives, that I would, quote, seem to

31:43

be prudent to limit any possible

31:45

content of TRIMALIGHT to an

31:47

absolute minimum. For years, the company had

31:49

been telling pediatricians that the usage

31:51

of its powder did not present any

31:53

hazards to babies or mothers. Such

31:55

assurances would be impossible the

31:57

Johnson and Johnson doctor wrote. If we

31:59

do include Trimolite in

31:59

more than unavoidable trace

32:02

amounts, and

32:02

added that it is not inconceivable that

32:05

we could become involved in litigation.

32:07

In nineteen

32:08

seventy one, researchers at Mount

32:10

SI Medical Center shared

32:13

preliminary findings that talc was laced with

32:15

asbestos with New York City's Department of

32:17

Environmental Protection That

32:19

agency informed the Nixon administration

32:21

of the results, and the US Food

32:23

and Drug Administration opened an inquiry.

32:26

Our fifty years of research knowledge in

32:28

this area indicates that there is no

32:30

asbestos contained in the powder manufactured

32:32

by Johnson and Johnson. The company said

32:34

in a statement. but behind closed

32:37

doors. Johnson and Johnson executives were

32:39

scrambling. They considered replacing

32:41

talc in its products until they found out talc

32:43

was the cheapest and they tried to

32:45

discredit research suggesting that the powder could

32:47

be contaminated with asbestos. The

32:49

company was worried that the federal government

32:51

would soon ban talc for use

32:53

in cosmetic products. So

32:55

Johnson and Johnson made a list of antagonistic

32:58

personalities. They included researchers

33:00

around the world who had launched a, quote, attack

33:02

on talc. Johnson and Johnson even

33:04

sent executives to meet with some of those

33:06

researchers to try and convince them to

33:08

avoid, quote, frightening mothers

33:10

unnecessarily with their

33:12

test result Meanwhile, Johnson and Johnson was

33:14

conducting tests of its

33:16

own. In nineteen seventy

33:18

one, Johnson and Johnson helped fund a study

33:20

to inject a mixture of his Bestes

33:22

in Tawke, and to the lower backs

33:24

of ten inmates atholzberg prison

33:26

in Philadelphia. This was

33:27

just one of hundreds of

33:30

cruel and unethical experiments conducted by University

33:32

of Pennsylvania dermatologist, doctor

33:34

Albert Kligman, the left three

33:36

hundred mostly illiterate black and made

33:39

malformed and severely injured.

33:41

Over

33:41

twenty years, beginning in

33:43

the early fifties, subjects were injected

33:46

with viruses fungai, mind

33:48

altering drugs, even dioxin.

33:50

Some

33:50

were paid as little as ten dollars

33:52

to participate. Anything

33:55

anybody wanted to have tested on

33:57

humans, even things that were toxic and

33:59

carcinogenic

33:59

and dangerous could be done

34:02

there. That's Allen,

34:04

I'm Hornblue. He worked at Holmesburg prison

34:06

while the studies were taking place. He wrote a book

34:08

about it called Acres of Skin. That's

34:10

how doctor

34:12

Albert Klickman described seeing the prisoners for the first time to a

34:14

newspaper reporter in nineteen sixty

34:16

six, quote, all I saw before

34:18

me were acres

34:20

of skin. It was like a farmer seeing a for the first

34:22

time. Doctor Albert

34:24

Klickman died in two thousand ten at the

34:26

ripe old age of

34:28

ninety three. with no

34:30

regrets whatsoever. My

34:31

use of paid prisoners as research

34:34

subjects in the nineteen fifties and

34:36

nineteen sixties was in keeping with this nation's standard protocol for

34:38

conducting scientific investigations at

34:40

the time. He told the Baltimore sun

34:42

in nineteen

34:44

ninety eight. The

34:45

University of Pennsylvania finally apologized

34:48

in twenty twenty one for the actions of

34:50

one of its prestigious

34:52

faculty members. The city of Philadelphia formally apologized in

34:54

October twenty twenty two for ultimately

34:56

giving doctor Klickman the green light

34:58

to conduct the experiments for over

35:00

two decades. Today,

35:02

the city of Philadelphia issuing a formal

35:04

apology for historic wrongdoing.

35:06

Horrible medical experiments were

35:09

conducted on inmates At Holmesburg prison from the nineteen fifties

35:11

through the nineteen seventies, the majority of those

35:14

inmates were black man who

35:16

were illiterate. A

35:18

spokesperson

35:18

for Johnson and Johnson told Bloomberg that the company

35:21

deeply regretted the conditions under which the

35:23

Holmesburg prison studies were conducted.

35:26

and quote, in no

35:27

way do they reflect the values or practices

35:29

we employ today, but that's probably

35:31

only because it's illegal. It took

35:33

a literal act of

35:36

in nineteen seventy four to end human experimentation

35:38

on prisoners and mental patients

35:40

in the United States. in

35:44

addition to injecting its bestness into illiterate prisoners

35:46

without warning them of these certain health

35:48

consequences. Johnson and Johnson also

35:50

sent samples of its baby powder to

35:53

a private lab in Chicago in nineteen

35:55

seventy two. That private

35:56

lab in Chicago reportedly found trace

35:59

amounts of Trimolite

35:59

but declared

36:02

it Johnson

36:02

and Johnson sprinted to the capital with the results in

36:04

hand. Let it be known that

36:06

Johnson's baby powder contains a tolerable

36:09

amount of asbestos the company told

36:11

the FDA as if there were such a think the FDA couldn't

36:14

disagree, but

36:14

they weren't entirely convinced.

36:18

The

36:18

agency's own recent test of Johnson's baby powder turned up nothing,

36:20

but it was later discovered that the tests used

36:23

by the FDA were not sensitive enough

36:25

to detect trace amounts essentially

36:28

pointless. But it

36:30

was

36:30

good news for Johnson and Johnson, although

36:32

the company was still covering its bases.

36:36

In

36:36

nineteen seventy three, J and J explored acquiring a patent

36:38

on a process invented by a British

36:40

mineralologist that separated talc

36:44

from asbestos Ultimately, Johnson

36:44

and Johnson decided against it because of the

36:47

optics. Why would the company need a

36:48

patent to remove asbestos from

36:52

talc when it claims there's no asbestos in the talc in the first place

36:54

because Johnson and Johnson

36:56

knew the truth and the company did

36:58

everything it could to shape a new reality.

37:01

like funding studies and informing researchers

37:03

of its desired results or

37:06

issuing subjective interpretations of

37:08

data collected by analysts to employees of

37:10

Johnson and Johnson had cozied up

37:12

to. All of

37:12

its efforts paid off. In

37:14

nineteen seventy six, Johnson and

37:16

Johnson presented its finely tuned

37:19

data to the FDA that showed that

37:21

there was virtually no asbestos in its talcum products. However,

37:23

J and

37:24

J conveniently omitted two company

37:28

commissions test private labs that have found traces. One of the

37:30

tests found as best as particles in almost a

37:32

third of the samples taken from Johnson

37:34

and Johnson's

37:36

tout mine. Some of them seemed rather high, the private lab

37:38

wrote. The FDA was none the

37:40

wiser, and after

37:40

not being able to reach a

37:43

consensus on testing methods, The

37:45

agency abandoned any plans I had to regulate

37:48

and monitor talc for

37:50

asbestos. I don't think you can

37:52

separate individual

37:54

behavior corporate behavior.

37:56

I at one point as

37:57

a young person was conflicted about whether

37:59

I

37:59

want to go into business or not because

38:02

I was

38:04

had some of the same things that a lot of young people have business

38:06

thinks only about profit and not

38:08

about the larger issues. That's

38:11

James E Burke. He was CEO

38:13

of Johnson and Johnson in nineteen eighty when the company launched a

38:15

brand new corn starch version of

38:17

its baby powder. Despite

38:20

the avoidance of regulation, cells of the original

38:22

talc based powder have been steadily

38:24

decreasing over the safety concerns. Mister

38:27

Burke was still CEO in the late

38:30

eighties. When Johnson and Johnson hired an

38:32

advertising agency to reinvigorate

38:34

the brand The company

38:36

began targeting insecure teenagers in

38:38

hopes of developing a new generation of

38:40

customers. Their efforts

38:42

mostly failed. And according to an the

38:44

nineties, Johnson and Johnson's baby powder

38:46

marketing efforts shifted to,

38:48

quote, ethnic opportunities to grow

38:50

the franchise.

38:52

Johnson's

39:00

baby powder

39:02

for

39:02

and underwritten. Baby powder

39:03

still retained

39:04

high usage rates among black and Hispanic

39:06

customers. Johnson and Johnson spent

39:08

the next two decades promoting the product

39:11

these demographics at concerts, churches, beauty

39:14

salons, and barbershops. Additionally,

39:16

the company specifically targeted

39:20

overweight customers partnering with Lane Bryant and running ads in Weight

39:22

Watchers magazine. When presented

39:24

with the initial drafts of the campaign,

39:26

a brand manager at Johnson and Johnson

39:28

wrote in the email to ask

39:31

Weight Watchers if they could use photos of, quote, slightly bigger women.

39:33

They don't have to be super curvy,

39:35

but a little bigger than the current

39:37

image would be preferable. Later,

39:40

a

39:40

radio campaign in twenty ten

39:42

was aimed at, quote, Kirby

39:44

Southern women eighteen to forty

39:46

nine years old, skewing African American.

39:49

Johnson

39:49

and Johnson would demand its baby powder

39:51

radio commercials air only when the weather

39:54

was hot and humid. Now, there's

39:56

nothing wrong with knowing

39:58

your audience. But Johnson and Johnson had long known there was a

39:59

problem. The company had already been

40:01

sued over allegations that baby powder caused

40:03

ovarian cancer and

40:06

mesothelioma. yet Johnson and Johnson

40:08

continued to pedal the product to specific

40:10

communities. Long after it had sold

40:12

his chief top mine in Vermont and

40:15

destroyed all the documents. Legal

40:16

counsel for Johnson and Johnson disputed many of the facts presented in the New

40:19

York Times and Reuters reports that they had

40:21

known about asbestos and its

40:24

talc. The company issued a statement, calling the article's one-sided,

40:26

false, and inflammatory quote,

40:29

simply put the Reuters stories

40:31

in absurd

40:31

conspiracy theory.

40:34

and

40:34

that it apparently has spanned over forty

40:36

years, orchestrated among generations of global regulators, the

40:39

world's foremost scientists and

40:41

universities, leading independent labs,

40:44

and J and J employees themselves

40:46

even though the reports

40:47

were based entirely on Johnson and

40:49

Johnson's own documents. Anyway,

40:52

in the

40:53

immediate days after the Bombshell articles, the company's

40:55

stock sank more than twelve

40:57

percent. Four days after

41:00

the report Johnson and Johnson lost its bid to overturn

41:02

the four point seven billion dollar

41:04

baby powder verdict awarded to the

41:06

twenty two women who filed in Saint Louis

41:08

that summer.

41:10

Johnson and Johnson responded like they always do. The company

41:12

stood behind its products, denied any

41:14

wrongdoing, said they had acted completely

41:17

appropriately, and of course,

41:20

that it would continue to appeal. I would say it's a

41:22

a matter of protecting customer choice. So

41:24

yes, it is a small product, but the

41:26

product has been proven to be safe.

41:29

not just by people within the walls of Johnson and

41:32

Johnson, but respected institutions and

41:34

regulatory authorities across

41:36

the globe So to pull

41:38

it from the market would seem for the list up best and said an awful

41:40

precedent.

41:43

Support for Swindled comes

41:45

from generation

41:46

y. For true fans of True

41:48

Crime, the generation y podcast

41:51

is essential listening Host, Aaron and

41:54

Justin started this podcast in twenty

41:56

twelve to dissect some of the craziest and

41:58

most notable murders, crimes, and

42:00

conspiracy theories together. And ten years

42:02

later, they're still at it, unraveling

42:04

a new case each week. Aaron

42:06

and Justin take on infamous cases like the

42:08

evil genius bank robbery, the zodiac killer,

42:10

and the Tylenol murders. And they

42:12

also cover lesser known cases, like the

42:14

case of Kimberly Rico, AKA

42:16

the Valentine Murder, where Killam takes husband on a

42:19

romantic weekend that includes a murder

42:21

mystery play that she of course uses

42:23

as a cover up to murder

42:25

him for insurance money The two go

42:27

on every angle, breaking down theories, diving deep into forensic

42:29

evidence, and interviewing those close to the

42:31

case. And honestly, it feels like you're in the

42:33

room with them while they

42:36

get into it. Follow the generation y podcast on

42:38

Amazon Music or listen early in ad

42:40

free by joining Wonderry Plus on Apple

42:42

Podcasts or the

42:44

Wonderry app.

42:45

Turning

42:48

now

42:51

to a recall alert Johnson

42:53

and Johnson voluntarily recalling its baby powder finding

42:56

low levels of

42:58

asbestos contamination The

43:00

recall limited to one lot of baby powder produced and

43:02

shipped in the US last year. This

43:04

is in response to the FDA tests

43:06

that found levels of asbestos in

43:09

sample bottle bought online. Around

43:12

thirty three thousand bottles are included

43:14

in that recall. The company is

43:16

saying this stop using the powder

43:18

and call the company for a refund. In early October

43:20

twenty nineteen, Johnson

43:21

and Johnson recalled thirty

43:24

three thousand and bottles of

43:26

baby powder after FDA

43:28

regulators found a small amount of asbestos

43:30

and a bottle purchased online.

43:32

The recall came on the heels

43:34

of a subpoena issued by the justice department and security and exchange commission.

43:36

Federal officials began investigating the

43:39

safety of Johnson and Johnson's talc products in

43:42

response to the thousands of lawsuits that had

43:44

been filed. This was terrible

43:46

news

43:46

for the company, which

43:48

had and damage control mode since the Reuters article.

43:50

Johnson and Johnson CEO, Alex

43:52

Skorsky, even appeared on Jim

43:54

Crain MAV Money Show

43:56

on CNBC to ease Stockholder's

43:58

concerns. Well, Jim, thank

43:59

you very much for having us here today. And

44:02

and look, given all the allegations and

44:04

some of the reports media. I think it's

44:06

important as the CEO of Johnson and

44:08

Johnson to be here to not only talk with your

44:10

viewers, but actually all of our

44:12

stakeholders. Gorski said

44:13

the headlines didn't reflect the

44:15

under lying reality. Regarding the baby powder, there

44:17

was nothing to worry about because

44:19

Johnson and Johnson is a company that

44:21

prides itself on safety and

44:24

family values. some of the testing that was conducted by Johnson

44:26

and Johnson employees, I can tell you, not only

44:28

are

44:28

these scientists

44:30

in

44:31

engineers who studied this and been trained on

44:33

it, but these are also moms and dads. These

44:35

are brothers and sisters

44:38

that I I have to leave, looking

44:40

out for what's in the best interest of patients,

44:42

the baser of each and every day.

44:45

In the best

44:46

interest of patients, John and

44:49

Johnson tested the baby and those moms and dads and brothers

44:51

and sisters who conducted those tests did

44:53

not find any traces of

44:56

asbestos. The

44:58

come

44:58

he had more than sixty samples analyzed, all of them negative. They

45:00

blame the FDA's initial positive

45:02

results on the portable air

45:04

condition or in the FDA's

45:06

lab. The FDA disagreed telling

45:08

the New York Times that the agency

45:11

followed standard operating for laboratory analysis and that it

45:13

saw no indication of cross

45:16

contamination. Johnson and Johnson's

45:18

stockholders were getting a bit nervous

45:20

by the end of twenty

45:23

nineteen, the company was facing more than one hundred thousand lawsuits in

45:25

total. Risperdal, artificial

45:26

hips, vaginal mesh, baby

45:29

powder. The baby powder, or

45:32

lawsuits alone could cost the company as

45:34

much as ten billion dollars.

45:36

Not to mention the opioid epidemic.

45:38

It was discovered that Johnson and Johnson

45:40

owned the company in Tasmania that produced

45:42

and refined poppies into narcotics

45:45

material. Johnson was the leading supplier of the

45:47

raw opioid ingredients to other drug

45:50

companies. The company even developed

45:51

a special strain of

45:54

poppy called Norman, what served as the core painkilling

45:56

agent used in OxyContin.

45:58

The state of Oklahoma, which

45:59

the

45:59

opioid crisis

46:02

has absolutely ravaged, took offense and sued

46:04

Johnson and Johnson for violating

46:06

its public nuisance law. Oklahoma

46:08

accused the

46:08

company of aggressively marked living

46:11

opioids to vulnerable populations, while

46:14

downplaying the risk of the

46:16

drugs. Between

46:16

twenty fifteen and twenty eighteen,

46:18

there were eighteen million opioid prescriptions written

46:20

in Oklahoma, a state with a population of

46:23

under four million people. Thousands

46:25

had overdosed

46:25

and died.

46:28

That thousands more were hopelessly addicted.

46:30

On August twenty six, twenty

46:31

nineteen, in a bench

46:34

trial, Judge

46:35

dad Bockman ordered Johnson and Johnson to

46:37

pay four hundred sixty five million dollars to

46:39

the state of Oklahoma and a

46:41

landmark ruling. Today, judge

46:44

Bachman has affirmed our

46:46

position that Johnson and

46:48

Johnson motivated

46:50

by III and Everest responsible

46:52

for the opioid epidemic in our

46:54

state. Johnson and Johnson

46:58

will finally be held

47:00

accountable for thousands of

47:02

deaths and addiction caused

47:04

by their activities. The company used

47:07

pseudoscience and misleading information that

47:10

downplay the risks of

47:12

opioids. We

47:14

leading to the worst man made public nuisance.

47:16

Our state in this country

47:18

has ever seen.

47:21

Two years later, an Oklahoma judge overturned the ruling because,

47:24

quote, the Oklahoma public

47:26

nuisance

47:26

law does not extend to the

47:28

man factory marketing

47:30

and selling of prescription opioids.

47:33

Johnson and Johnson and

47:35

three other major pharmaceutical companies later settled opioid

47:37

lawsuits from states and cities for twenty six

47:39

billion dollars. For its part

47:41

in the opioid

47:42

Johnson and

47:44

Johnson is required to pay five billion

47:46

dollars over nine years.

47:48

Overnight, Johnson

47:49

and Johnson announcing

47:52

a major change to one of its iconic product. The

47:54

pharmaceutical giant saying it will no longer

47:56

use talc in its baby powder products

47:58

sold in the US

47:59

and Canada. In a statement, the

48:02

company blaming declining sales,

48:04

fueled by misinformation around the safety

48:06

of the product and a constant barrage

48:09

of litigation advertising.

48:10

On

48:11

May nineteenth twenty twenty, while the

48:13

world was distracted by COVID

48:16

nineteen,

48:16

Johnson and Johnson announced plans to

48:18

discontinue sales of talc based baby powder.

48:20

in the United States and Canada. Only corn starch

48:22

based baby powder would be available from now on.

48:25

However, the talc based powder would

48:26

continue to be sold everywhere else

48:30

in the world. The company said the decision

48:32

was based on declining sales, non health

48:34

risk. In fact, in January

48:36

NBC

48:38

reported that a US government led study found,

48:40

quote, no strong evidence

48:42

linking baby powder with ovarian

48:44

cancer. and the largest analysis

48:46

to look at the question. The

48:48

findings were

48:49

called overall reassurance and an

48:51

editorial published in the Journal of the

48:53

American Medical Association. Johnson

48:56

and Johnson

48:56

remained steadfastly confident in the safety

48:59

of talc based Johnson's baby powder.

49:01

Decades of scientific

49:02

studies by medical experts around the world

49:05

support the safety of our product, the company said

49:07

in a statement. We will continue

49:09

to vigorously defend the

49:11

product, its safety. and

49:12

the unfounded allegations against it and

49:14

the company in the courtroom. However,

49:17

in October

49:18

twenty twenty, Instead

49:20

of defending itself in the courtroom, Johnson and Johnson chose to

49:23

settle nearly twenty thousand talc related

49:25

lawsuits for one hundred million

49:28

dollars There was

49:29

no admission of liability. It was probably just the

49:31

cheapest

49:31

and fastest solution. Because

49:33

a few

49:35

months earlier, Johnson and Johnson

49:37

have been ordered to pay seven hundred fifty dollars in damages to just

49:39

four women. That trial was notable

49:41

because

49:41

CEO Alex Korzky had

49:44

actually testified. He

49:46

admitted to having not read all of the historical documents on which

49:48

the lawsuit was based opting instead

49:50

to trust the company's experts. In

49:53

June twenty

49:54

twenty, The four point

49:57

seven billion dollars in damages awarded to the twenty two women in Saint

49:59

Louis back in

49:59

July twenty eighteen was slashed to

50:02

two billion

50:04

dollars The US Supreme

50:04

Court rejected Johnson and Johnson's appeal to hear

50:07

the case a year later. Forty

50:09

thousand talc

50:09

lawsuits remained

50:12

including

50:12

one brought by the National Council of New Girl Women in

50:14

July twenty twenty one for marketing a

50:17

potentially dangerous product to

50:19

black women for decades. The

50:21

Council's executive director, Janice Mathis,

50:24

told Reuters, quote, lots of

50:25

products target African Americans.

50:28

That's marketing 101 Go where

50:30

our customers are. What has

50:31

me disturbed about this is that you didn't give

50:34

any caveat to the customers. Once

50:36

you knew there was a possibility there was

50:38

some danger, It is about

50:40

the lives of

50:41

our grandmother's

50:45

our mothers, our

50:50

sisters, our daughters,

50:53

our nieces, and

50:56

our

50:56

wives

50:59

and

50:59

how they were

51:02

sinisterly targeted

51:06

by Johnson and Johnson,

51:08

this multibillion

51:10

dollar corporation.

51:13

who

51:13

their corporate executives

51:16

knew about

51:19

the link between Talcum

51:20

baby

51:21

powder and ovarian

51:24

cancer. And the shocking

51:26

move in

51:26

October twenty twenty one

51:29

Johnson

51:29

and Johnson, a giant corporation

51:31

that earned ninety four billion dollars in

51:33

revenue that year, saw the bankruptcy

51:36

protection to handle the remaining

51:38

tile lawsuits. The New

51:39

Jersey based company orchestrated an elaborate maneuver in which it

51:41

created a new subsidiary in Texas

51:44

called LTL

51:46

Management. There's a

51:47

quirky Texas business statute related to

51:50

divisive mergers that allows

51:52

corporations to partition their assets

51:54

from liabilities. In this

51:55

case, Johnson and Johnson settled its new

51:58

subsidiary LTL management with

51:59

all of the talc based liabilities

52:02

and then

52:04

declared bankruptcy. Doing

52:04

so effectively halted all baby powder litigation that

52:06

provided a single forum for

52:09

evaluating, estimating, and

52:12

capping the value of personal injury claims. Johnson

52:14

and Johnson claims the

52:15

maneuver will help resolve current and future

52:17

claims in a manner that is

52:19

equitable to all parties. Critics

52:21

say the company is hiding behind bankruptcy

52:23

to limit its legal exposure and

52:25

avoid potential liability.

52:27

Andy Burchfield a lawyer for Beasley Alma Maffern, which has

52:29

worked litigation against Johnson and Johnson, said

52:32

in a statement quote, here's another

52:34

example of the

52:35

wealthy and powerful using

52:37

bankruptcy as a hiding place to protect their profits

52:40

and avoid responsibility. The

52:42

entire nation, congress, and more than

52:44

thirty thousand victims of J and J's

52:46

dangerous talk product say no

52:48

to this flagrant and fraudulent

52:50

abuse of the bankruptcy

52:52

system. The US

52:53

Department of Justice has

52:55

challenged Johnson and Johnson's Texas two step

52:57

bankruptcy maneuver. But the legal

52:59

strategy is upheld, it paves the way

53:01

for every major corporation to

53:04

avoid liability.

53:05

So

53:06

we wait and see.

53:08

Meanwhile, this is a historic

53:10

day for Johnson and Johnson. This is

53:12

something that our board has deliberated about for some time. And we

53:15

really believe that by separating

53:17

our consumer business into

53:21

a separate publicly traded company that's in

53:23

the best long term interest of all of

53:25

our stakeholders. In September

53:28

twenty twenty two, Johnson announced

53:30

that it would separate its consumer business from

53:32

its medical device and pharmaceutical companies.

53:35

The new publicly traded

53:36

company would be called chem view.

53:39

According to the company,

53:40

its logo represents, quote, scientific

53:42

precision and the warmth

53:44

of care. The separation is

53:46

expected to take place in twenty

53:49

twenty three. Ken Vue's line of products will feature

53:51

all the classics such as Band Aids

53:53

and Tylenol, but no talc

53:56

based baby powder. which,

53:58

as of August twenty twenty two,

53:59

has been

54:02

discontinued globally.

54:03

Swindled

54:11

his written

54:12

research produced and hosted by me

54:14

a concerned citizen. With the original music

54:16

by Trevor Howard, AKA the former,

54:20

AKA Kinview. For more

54:22

information about Swindled, you can visit swindled

54:24

podcast dot com. Follow us on

54:26

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,

54:28

and TikTok. that's Swindled Podcast, or you can send us a

54:30

postcard at PO box 6044

54:32

Austin, Texas seventy 762

54:34

But please note packages we do not

54:38

trust you. Swindled as

54:38

a completely independent production, which means

54:40

no network, no investors, no bosses,

54:42

no shadowy money men, no human

54:46

experimentation. and we plan to

54:48

keep it that way, but we need your support. Become a valued listener on Patreon,

54:50

Apple Podcasts, or Spotify

54:52

at valued listener dot com

54:55

For as as five bucks a month, you will receive early

54:58

access to new episodes and exclusive

55:00

access to bonus episodes that you can't

55:02

find anywhere else. and everything is one

55:04

hundred percent commercial free.

55:06

Become a valued listener at valued

55:08

listener dot com. Or if you wanna

55:10

support the show and need something to help

55:12

freshen up consider buying

55:14

something you don't need at swindled podcast

55:16

dot com slash shop. Third

55:17

t shirts, patches, hats, or these posters,

55:19

coffee mugs, and more. swindled podcast dot com slash

55:21

shop. And remember to use coupon code

55:24

capitalism to receive ten percent off your

55:26

order. If you don't want anything in

55:28

return for

55:30

your support, You can always simply

55:32

donate using the form on the home page. That's it. Thanks for listening.

55:34

Hi.

55:35

My

55:36

name is

55:37

Natalie from Philadelphia. My

55:40

name is Neezy, and I'm from the suburbs of

55:42

Washington DC.

55:43

We're definitely no swimblazer. My

55:46

name is Goldstein from the 805

55:49

to the California. And I need

55:51

a new citizen. citizen. Any value

55:53

you without English.

55:56

Correct? Come on,

55:56

Albert. Let me spell you, please.