Althouse: "Does baby powder cause cancer?"

May 6, 2017

"Does baby powder cause cancer?"

"Another jury says yes."

33 comments:

Curious George said...: No.; 5/6/17, 1:30 PM
chuck said...: St. Louis looks like the goto city for these trials. There must be a lot of Democrats in the jury pool.; 5/6/17, 1:30 PM
Heatshield said...: It is ridiculous to give this question to a jury until there is consistent and significant scientific proof. Everything I've read is inconclusive. And since there was no such proof during the time of these incidents, it makes no sense to hold anyone liable for bad behavior since there was no bad behavior.

This is simply more people getting rich off emotional appeals.; 5/6/17, 1:31 PM
Ratbuster said...: I have no clue as to how I've survived this long.; 5/6/17, 1:33 PM
LYNNDH said...: I would like to think that the award would be deemed by an Appeals Court a tad bit high.; 5/6/17, 1:40 PM
bagoh20 said...: This is why we all need to insist on only baby powder that is certified as made from 100% organic babies. The risk is due to the pesticides used by the big name producers who grow babies on immense mechanized farms, and grow them to enormous unnatural proportions with hormones and forced feeding. Also buy local, think global.; 5/6/17, 1:50 PM
bagoh20 said...: "Another Jury says Yes".

We should put all question of the unknown to juries and within a short time we would posses all the knowledge of the universe. First up: What does dark matter taste like? I'm betting the answer would be "chicken".; 5/6/17, 2:01 PM
Darrell said...: If anyone knows science, it is juries.; 5/6/17, 2:04 PM
Darrell said...: Would Drano let you hurt your pipes?; 5/6/17, 2:08 PM
Michael K said...: "What does dark matter taste like? I'm betting the answer would be "chicken"."

No, "It tastes a little like butterscotch."

That's a punchline to my favorite joke.; 5/6/17, 2:10 PM
buwaya said...: This is one structural problem hurting small business in the US as it heavily favors economies of scale. No medium sized business can absorb such product liability risks long term.
J&J can, as noted, live with the risk as it can afford the litigation costs.
As these risks increased post-1960s it's been yet another barrier to entry, and innovation. It's the compounding overhead of this stuff plus regulation that's burdened the US economy, leading to much of the negative trends we see, in productivity growth, small business formation and survival, employment, etc.; 5/6/17, 2:26 PM
MD Greene said...: If you are in a car accident in New Jersey and are not at fault, you will receive several letters shortly afterward from concerned lawyers eager to protect your rights by suing the other driver.

There is an online trial site where you can find out whether you have been wronged by some company and whether some noble attorneys have won money FOR YOU. Even better, you might get in early as a named plaintiff in a class action suit and maybe make $5,000, unlike the other chumps who get $10 gift certificates; the lawyers will collect millions apiece.

It's not immediately apparent that talc causes cancer. But it's worth wondering if trial lawyers do.; 5/6/17, 2:32 PM
Marc in Eugene said...: Evidently I, personally, don't need to worry about this, which is great since I just bought a container of baby powder earlier today.

I wonder if there is some way to cleverly allude to the post the other day about fashion and football and the gendered expectations involved &c &c; am not clever enough to do so, if there is. Perhaps nothing to do with cancer is suitable to be used for amusement of any sort.; 5/6/17, 2:48 PM
buwaya said...: This is one mechanism/trend Schumpeter did not anticipate, but it too adds to the collapse of capitalism into corporatism.; 5/6/17, 2:54 PM
FullMoon said...: Never smoked it, I got enough problems as it is.; 5/6/17, 3:03 PM
DanTheMan said...: Look, you imbeciles...mom put baby powder on her baby. Later, the child got cancer.

What more proof do you need????

You don't want to be talc denier, do you?; 5/6/17, 3:35 PM
JohnAnnArbor said...: There's a reason trial lawyers make sure scientists, engineers and anyone capable of analytical thinking are tossed from these kinds of juries.; 5/6/17, 4:18 PM
Big Mike said...: I imagine this will turn out to be based on junk science.; 5/6/17, 4:26 PM
CWJ said...: No, but Brown & Crouppon - no, I mean Mitt Romney - does.; 5/6/17, 4:31 PM
CWJ said...: BTW, Brown & Crouppen are on TV here in KC soliciting people who've gotten sick after using Roundup.; 5/6/17, 4:34 PM
The Godfather said...: If I were starting out in law practice today, I'd specialize in talcum defense. There's got to be a fortune in that. Yeah, there might be more money on the plaintiff side, but a guy's got to be able to live with himself.; 5/6/17, 4:34 PM
CWJ said...: Final comment. Yes, lower case chuck! It is well known here in MO that St. Louis IS the place to get a jury to hear your case if you're the plaintiff's bar. Insurers live in mortal fear of St. Louis juries.; 5/6/17, 4:40 PM
n.n said...: it too adds to the collapse of capitalism into corporatism

The march left to fascism. I expected a longer trip. Now, I regret not stopping to smell the roses. That said, I finally appreciate the indolence of post-normal generations.; 5/6/17, 5:16 PM
robinintn said...: "...who have gotten sick after using Roundup". They'll have to pry the spray bottle from my cold dead hands. I'm going to Home Depot right now to pick up a lifetime supply.; 5/6/17, 5:24 PM
eric said...: I keep hearing about scientific consensus in things like global warming, etc.

This is dumb. How does one arrive at scientific consensus? It's not by polling scientists!

What we need to do is convene a jury of our peers, present them with the science, and viola! Now we have consensus!; 5/6/17, 6:24 PM
MayBee said...: I know someone who has ovarian cancer in a major US city, and a couple law firms came and visited her in the hospital when she had her first surgery.; 5/6/17, 6:45 PM
n.n said...: This is just like Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming, where an effect (or correlation) observed in isolation (or circumstantially) was extrapolated (or inferred) to a universal frame of reference. Not a few lawyers, scientists, and activists have made a name and fortune from this economy.; 5/6/17, 7:23 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/6/17, 7:40 PM
Michael K said...: If I were starting out in law practice today, I'd specialize in talcum defense. There's got to be a fortune in that. Yeah, there might be more money on the plaintiff side, but a guy's got to be able to live with himself.

My older son, who is a lefty and angry at me for something, started out as a construction defense lawyer and did very well.

A few years ago, he was lured by more money to the "dark side."

Strangely enough, that was when he stopped talking to me.; 5/6/17, 9:18 PM
rwnutjob said...: Ambulance chasers, community organizers, & unions are basically legal extortion.; 5/7/17, 6:26 AM
JAORE said...: Juries are, for the most part, incapable of analysis, statistics or anything beyond fourth grade math.

But they are humdingers at noting the pain and suffering of someone suing the evil corporations that profit by that suffering, whether the corporation was at fault or not.

Aided and abetted by sleazy attorneys (some of whom run in primaries for Democratic party nominations for president) fill the jurors heads with fanciful tales of the suffering of the unborn maltreated by uncaring doctors, or the plight of women whose breast implants caused diseases or other piles of steaming dog crap.

There is a willing audience of 12 because we are taught, daily, by "entertainment" and politicians on the left that a corporation is a greedy device to enrich a handful of villains based on the suffering of people JUST LIKE YOU!; 5/7/17, 9:12 AM
0_0 said...: I had cancer.

Who do I sue?; 5/7/17, 6:32 PM
Peter said...: "When it rains, it pours." Where did I hear that?

"The United States Food and Drug Administration considers talc (magnesium silicate) to be generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for use as an anticaking agent in table salt in concentrations smaller than 2%." Oh.; 5/8/17, 9:21 AM