LOS ANGELES – A pathologist called by attorneys for Johnson & Johnson in a trial to decide if alleged asbestos in baby powder caused Amy Fong to contract the deadly disease said the product does not cause mesothelioma.
“Why are you serving as an expert witness for J&J?” asked Kimberly Branscome, the company’s attorney.
“I agreed to serve because the data and my history of research with talc and other minerals as well as non-asbestos fragments support my opinions that non-asbestos fragments do not cause mesothelioma, and talc does not cause it,” said Dr. Brooke Mossman, a pathology professor with the University of Vermont.
Talc is a mineral rock ground up to produce baby powder and has been mined for J&J in Italy, Vermont, Korea and more recently China.
The trial in the Los Angeles Superior Court is being streamed live courtesy of Courtroom View Network.
Mossman, who appeared as a witness for the defense on Thursday and Friday, agreed with a slide displayed for a jury that many long thin fibers entering the body do not cause mesothelioma, including cotton, nylon and glass fibers.
Under a microscope, asbestos fibers look long and thin with a length-to-width ration of 3-to-1 or greater.
Mossman has performed in vitro studies (isolate cells from animals or humans), rodent studies and correlation of mineral impacts with human tissues.
“There are three types of major asbestos,” she said. “Chrysotile is the most common, but crocidolite and amosite are the most potent."
“Why is it important which is the most potent?” Branscome asked.
“We have to understand so we know how it relates to mesothelioma,” Mossman explained. “Chrysotile is curly, different from rod-like fibers (crocidolite).”
Under cross-examination by plaintiff attorneys, Mossman was asked if she agreed that different kinds of asbestos have different properties.
“I do agree,” she said.
Mossman said she had not come to testify about internal Johnson & Johnson company documents of the past, but about the science of pathology regarding minerals.
“Did Johnson & Johnson ever ask you to test talc?”
“No, I never did that kind of work,” Mossman said. “I’m here as a scientific researcher and would not be interested in internal documents. My opinions are based on my own studies.”
“You haven’t looked at epidemiological literature?”
“Correct,” Mossman answered.
“You haven’t looked at any talc from Vermont?"
“Correct.”
Asbestos researchers Dr. Alice Blount and Dr. William Longo, both expert witnesses for the plaintiff, earlier testified that they had found asbestos in the baby powder using heavy liquid separation and high-powered microscopes.
Developed in the 1970s, heavy liquid separation involves spinning a tube filled with talc to separate the talc from heavier materials that could then be looked at under a microscope.
Critics of Johnson & Johnson said the company should have used the heavy liquid method because of its sensitivity in detecting asbestos. Company officials declined to adopt it, saying it could not detect chrysotile, one of six asbestos minerals, because chrysotile won’t separate well from talc (similar densities).
Defense attorneys added that government agencies like the Food & Drug Administration had also declined to adopt the heavy liquid technique.
However, plaintiff attorneys allege that company officials were frightened of what the heavy liquid approach might find in the powder.
Mossman was asked if she had seen microscope photos taken by Blount.
“If I’ve seen them in the past, I don’t recall,” she said.
Mossman indicated she had done extensive research on industrial talc powder used in business and industry. Baby powder is considered cosmetic talc and expert witnesses for Johnson & Johnson have testified that cosmetic talc is more pure than the industrial variety.
“For me to test J&J talc would not be necessary,” Mossman said. “We did not see any cancer-causing potential with the less pure (industrial) talcs.”
Fong, 48, a resident of Pasadena, sued Johnson & Johnson and its talc powder supplier Imerys Talc America claiming she developed mesothelioma, a deadly cancer of the lungs, as a result of breathing in asbestos-contaminated baby powder over a long period of time.
Fong’s attorneys allege talc powder mined in Korea and inhaled by Fong in Hong Kong where she lived during the 1970s is the cause of her disease.
Johnson & Johnson attorneys argue the woman's mesothelioma could have been contracted from asbestos in fumes inhaled from an incinerator at a landfill near her home in Hong Kong.