FESTIVAL OF COLORS GETS A WAKE-UP CALL. . .
In the United States, evidence that people have been exposed to toxins poisoning the air, drinking water, as well as minerals used for personal care products has led to an ongoing explosion of civil lawsuits.
Personal injury law firms have had tremendous success representing victims whose cancers they claim are attributable to both negligence and indifference to public health. In many cases, appeals of jury awards require adjudication by state and federal court systems, particularly when bankruptcy is used as a means to dodge or reduce liability. Here are a few notable examples:
Hurley, Lawrence, “U.S. Supreme Court Rebuffs J&J Appeal Over $2 Billion Baby Powder Judgment.” 1 June 2021. Reuters.com. [Stung by the Missouri Court of Appeals’ refusal to overturn $2.12 billion jury award to 22 women, J&J made a last ditch attempt to have it overturned by the higher court.]
Friedman, Lisa and Vivian Giang, “3M Reaches $10.3 Billion Settlement in ‘Forever Chemicals’ Suit.” 22 June 2023. The New York Times. [Payout to cover testing and remediation efforts by U.S. municipalities over 13 years. Settlement has no bearing on thousands of lawsuits.]
“Levy Konigsberg Files 116 Mesothelioma Suits Against J& J Spinoff Kenvue,” 16 June 2023. Levylaw.com. [This lawsuit is especially relevant since it involves a corporate spinoff designed to insulate J&J in case its bankruptcy maneuvers fail.]
What Johnson and Johnson (“J&J”)—a trusted household name in America and abroad—has endured due to the presence of asbestos in its famous baby powder is a test case for what happens when the profit motive overwhelms common sense.
This pharmaceutical giant has bitter experience in this regard. By 2023, this venerable American institution paid billions in punitive and compensatory damages to settle at least 52,000 claims asserting that its famed line of talcum powders contained asbestos (which causes ovarian cancer as well as the fatal lung cancer mesothelioma).
Keep in mind that J&J was sued by claimants who showed proof that they suffered from cancers they said resulted from using its talc-based products as infants or later on. No proof of purchase has ever been required. Jury trials have awarded huge amounts after hearing claimant accounts of their medically diagnosed illnesses and also in knowledge of J&J’s concealing the asbestos menace.
The Festival of Colors organizers, on the other hand, have posted thousands of images of its guests in many venues domestically and internationally as promotional materials on the Internet. It is obvious that massive amounts of “Holi” powders imported from India coated their guests and were inevitably inhaled. The chemical pollution issue from the toxic chemicals in these powders has been extremely well-documented in peer-reviewed scientific journals as well as numerous newspaper articles.
In addition, the many lawsuits filed during the decades after the September 11, 2001 tragedy have shown that lung damage caused by breathing airborne pollutants laced with lethal toxins can take years to develop into mesothelioma and other cancers.
These facts have given future claimants of the Festival of Colors lawsuits a distinct advantage over their J&J counterparts because their contact with the toxin-laced Holi dust has been thoroughly documented by the festival organizers themselves.
Furthermore, the requirement to show proof of suffering any medically diagnosed illnesses acquired as a result is a moot point in light of the long exposure timing issues legal experts have encountered when dealing with toxic pollutant lawsuits involving air and water contamination. In other words, no matter when and how you were exposed to chemicals with potentially harmful and/or fatal toxic properties through inhaling, ingesting or any other means, the corporations or organizations responsible remain culpable indefinitely.
Instead of treating their guests simply as a throng of pleasure-seekers eager to part with their money, the promoters will shortly find themselves besieged by lawyers seeking to collect millions in punitive and compensatory damages for claimants exposed to
Since most claimants will seek class action status to expedite their claims and can provide irrefutable evidence to substantiate them, the Festival of Colors organizers will be in a much worse position than others accused of exposing people to hazardous substances.
In recent years such environmental toxic tort settlements have resulted in multi-million dollar payments to claimants from companies otherwise known for their rigid product safety measures and consumer loyalty.
Furthermore, the ongoing exposure assessments used in civil lawsuits to evaluate multimillion dollar environmental toxic tort settlements have been rendered unnecessary by the mountain of photographic evidence that the festival’s organizers have used for promotional purposes. This fact will expedite the claims process for the multitudes whose cases will keep personal injury law firms occupied for years to come.
Notes
1. Virtually all of the civil lawsuits against J&J have been based on adult claimants’ allegations that its talcum baby powders were the source of the mesothelioma and ovarian cancers they developed after years of using the product for personal hygiene purposes. However, in 2018 a Reuters investigative report exposed J&J’s knowledge of asbestos contamination in its talc products tracing back decades. Tests from different labs found asbestos in Its talc from 1971 to the early 2000s, and the company failed to report the findings to the U.S.# Food and Drug Administration. Although J&J insisted that scientists have found no correlation between use of its talc-based products and cancer, juries have overwhelmingly rejected its findings and ruled in favor of the claimants without requiring proof that any of them actually used Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder. The sheer number of such lawsuits (currently 52,000 with many more in the pipeline) led J & J to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection twice (in an obvious effort to sidestep additional jury trials).
For a concise summary of the history of the Johnson & Johnson asbestos issue and lawsuits, please see:
Whitmer, Michelle. "Johnson & Johnson." Asbestos.com, 24 Jan 2024, https://www.asbestos.com/companies/johnson-johnson/.
Knauth, Dietrich. “J & J Effort to Resolve Talc Lawsuits in Bankruptcy Fails a Second Time.” Reuters.com. 31 July 2023. 5 Sept. 2023,
2. Although J&J has consistently upheld the safety of its talc-based products, scientific analyses have long since definitively shown that the mines from which it is extracted are naturally contaminated by asbestos. J&J was aware of this fact from 1957, but continued to sell them in the USA and Canada until, under pressure from a mountain of ongoing litigation, it finally ceased production altogether in 2020.
3. For example , in 2021 two lawsuits awarded two municipalities settlements of nearly $90 million in damages for the presence of polyfluoroalkyal (PFOA) in water in upstate New York. And these are only the tip of the iceberg. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry of the Department of Health and Human Services (CDC/ATSDR) is currently conducting exposure assessments by enlisting the voluntary cooperation of people living in areas around the U.S. known to be contaminated by PFOA in the soil and water (all attributed to nearby U.S. military operations). It is also conducting a thorough governmental and legal examination of regulatory issues dealing with the knowledge that various branches of the U.S. government had in allowing the PFOA contamination to continue unabated for decades.
Disclaimer: Nothing in this blog essay is meant as a substitute for professional legal advice. If you wish to proceed with any claims against the Festival of Colors organization either as an individual or as part of a class action settlement, it would be prudent to contact a reputable personal injury law firm in your area. Although I stand by the research findings in this essay, all of it and much more can be obtained using the services of any competent paralegal.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This essay and all of the charts and illustrations were prepared by and are the exclusive property of the blog author. Using any part of them in any manner, in print or online, is strictly forbidden. A standard link to this blog is a better alternative.
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