The state of Montana will receive a multi-million dollar settlement from pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, over alleged ties between baby powder and cases of cancer.
Attorney General Austin Knudsen announced Wednesday that Montana will receive about $3.5 million out of the $700,000,000 settlement Johnson & Johnson reached in a class action lawsuit.
Montana was one of 42 states that sued the company for allegedly selling talc-based products like baby powder while knowing those products contained cancer-causing materials like asbestos.
“Johnson & Johnson violated Montana’s consumer protection laws, but worse put the health and safety of consumers at risk. The company’s actions are unacceptable and I’m glad we could help to hold them accountable,” Attorney General Knudsen said in a press release Wednesday.
Johnson & Johnson did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement but still faces more than 60,000 individual lawsuits over cancer cases allegedly linked to its talc products.
Most of the cases are ovarian cancer, though a small number are also cases of mesothelioma.
Attorney General Knudsen says settlement payments will start coming into Montana at the end of July.
Knudsen says the funds will be allocated, per his discretion, into Children Advocacy Centers across the state, which provided services to children who have been sexually assaulted.
