On April 5, 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed that its third-party testing of cosmetic talc products for 2023 identified no traces of asbestos in any of the 50 cosmetic samples tested. FDA’s 2023 results, which were reported in a Cosmetics Constituent Update, are consistent with its testing for 2022 and 2021, which also failed to detect asbestos in any of the 50 cosmetic samples tested for those years. Read the full Alert on Duane Morris’ website.
Why Talc Claimants’ Experts Should Fear New Jersey Courts
Sharon Caffrey, co-chair of Duane Morris’ Trial Practice Group, is quoted in the Law360 article “Why Talc Claimants’ Experts Should Fear New Jersey Courts.”
From the article:
Cleavage fragments, or mineral particles that are found in rocks, can look like asbestos chemically, but they don’t have the same cancer-causing fibrogenic characteristics that asbestos does, Duane Morris LLP partner Sharon Caffrey told Law360.
“It’s not asbestos, and it’s … never been established as a cause of mesothelioma,” Caffrey said.
Visit the Law360 website to read the full article.
The Hidden Preemption Defense: What You Should Know
The most recent talc verdicts have demonstrated some traction in defeating claims based on certain go-to defense strategies, including personal jurisdiction dismissals, the use of expert testimony and Daubert motions discrediting scientific causation, and even requests to jurors to use their “common sense” in evaluating scientific evidence. However, there is another tool that defense attorneys should consider in talc cases: federal preemption.
Part of the mass appeal of talc cases lies in the prevalence of talc-based products in the marketplace, due to the numerous uses for talc in a variety of consumer products across cosmetics, over-the-counter (OTC) drugs, and even foods. As talc litigation expands into products that may be regulated as OTC drugs, defense counsel should consider the options that they might have in invoking federal preemption as a defense strategy. While the defense remains untested, there is a sound basis for its application. This article will discuss the federal U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory scheme that is applicable to talc-based products and when federal preemption may support an argument for defeating conflicting state law claims against talc-containing OTC drugs.
To read the full text of this article by Duane Morris attorneys Anne A. Gruner and
Nicholas M. Centrella, Jr., please visit the Duane Morris website.