[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 194 (Thursday, November 4, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H6189-H6190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  DIVISIVE MERGER AT JOHNSON & JOHNSON

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Porter) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. PORTER. Mr. Speaker, a jury instructed Johnson & Johnson to pay 
$5 million in damages to Patricia, a retired teacher with two children 
and four grandchildren. One month later, she died, at age 61, of 
mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure.
  Thirty-five-year-old Christina was a preschool teacher studying for 
her master's degree when she was diagnosed with mesothelioma. In 2019, 
a jury awarded her $26 million in her case against Johnson & Johnson.
  Gail was 36 years old when she collapsed on her kitchen floor. She 
was diagnosed with mesothelioma and has

[[Page H6190]]

undergone six rounds of chemotherapy, radiation, and major surgeries. 
Two days into her 2019 trial, Johnson & Johnson struck a deal to pay 
her damages.
  These women, all Californians, are just a few of the now over 40,000 
women who want Johnson & Johnson to help cover the millions of dollars 
in medical expenses they have racked up in their fight against cancer 
caused by asbestos exposure.
  Before we knew asbestos caused cancer, men who inhaled asbestos dust 
in mines and in industries like shipbuilding got mesothelioma cancer. 
For decades, women who didn't work in those jobs, but were diagnosed 
with mesothelioma, wondered how they could have been exposed.
  Like asbestos, talc is a naturally occurring mineral that must be 
mined. During that process, talc can be contaminated by asbestos.
  The 40,000 women all diagnosed with asbestos-related cancers all used 
Johnson & Johnson baby powder for decades on their children and on 
themselves. The main ingredient? Talc.
  Johnson & Johnson sold its iconic baby powder for 60 years, despite 
their own internal documents showing that their executives, scientists, 
doctors, and lawyers all knew that some bottles were laced with 
asbestos.
  In 1976, Johnson & Johnson assured the FDA that no asbestos was 
``detected in any sample'' of talc produced between December 1972 and 
October 1973. What it didn't say, what it didn't tell the regulator, 
was that at least three tests by three different labs found asbestos in 
the powder, in one case at levels reported as ``rather high.''
  Internal documents confirm that Johnson & Johnson willfully misled 
consumers about the safety of its baby powder.
  In a memo to managers, a Johnson & Johnson executive explained that 
the company's policy of countering negative research about the dangers 
of talc: ``Our current posture with respect to sponsorship of talc 
safety studies has been to initiate studies only as dictated by 
confrontation.'' ``The principal advantage for this operating 
philosophy lies in the fact that we minimize the risk of possible self-
generation of scientific data which may be politically or 
scientifically embarrassing.''
  In this 2013 markup of a statement for Johnson & Johnson's website, 
you can see that Johnson & Johnson's legal team advised the company 
against claiming that: ``Our talc-based consumer products have always 
been asbestos free,'' with the comment: ``We cannot say `always.''' 
They recognized that the company's talc could have been contaminated in 
earlier times.
  Johnson & Johnson built its fortune on its baby powder. The company's 
net worth is $440 billion, plenty of assets to help the women poisoned 
by their products.
  Three weeks ago, Johnson & Johnson formed a subsidiary called LTL 
Management. They then dumped all of their asbestos-related liabilities, 
including those nearly 40,000 lawsuits, into that shell company. Two 
days later, LTL Management filed for bankruptcy.
  This is corporate chicanery, corporate abuse, because Johnson & 
Johnson only provided that shell company with $2 billion to cover tens 
of thousands of asbestos-related lawsuits. Two billion dollars is a big 
number, but Johnson & Johnson knows the real damages they caused. In 
2018, the company was ordered to pay $4.69 billion to 22 women and 
their families who used baby powder. They know they did not put enough 
money into that entity, and they specifically created it to avoid 
liability.
  Corporations abusing our bankruptcy system is not new. Before I came 
to Congress, I did extensive research on these kinds of predatory, 
anti-consumer tactics.
  Johnson & Johnson is abusing our legal system to shield its assets. 
This is an injustice and Congress must act.

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