Why The Healthy Living Foundation Filed Legal Action Against Johnson’s Baby Products in Washington, d.c.
On April 15, 2022, I filed a class action lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson baby products in Washington, D.C. Superior Court. I can’t think of a more egregious violation of integrity than what the company engaged in to hawk its baby products to more than twenty-million consumers who use them with misplaced faith that they were safe for their newborns. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I allege in the complaint that Johnson & Johnson engaged in numerous false advertising claims. The company claims that their products are phthalate free.
Johnson & Johnson’s so-called no-phthalate formulas prominently display, front and center, “no parabens, phthalates or dyes”, or other similar free-of-phthalate advertising on the product packaging.
Johnson & Johnson’s online promotional materials assure consumers that its No-Phthalate Products are the “best for babies”, “safest and gentlest care for your baby”, and “help to support the overall well-being of your baby’s skin.”
In fact, their products contained multiple phthalates.
Among the products:
1. Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Soap Bar;
2. Head-to-Toe Gentle Baby Cleansing Cloths;
3. Baby Shampoo with Tear-Free Formula; and
4. Head-to-Toe Gentle Tear Free Wash & Shampoo.
These products are marketed as free-of phthalates but are in fact contaminated with quantifiable levels of various types of phthalates.
Thus far, in total, the HLF has identified 13 Johnson’s baby products with multiple phthalates. In many hospitals, the first bath that infants are given is with Johnson’s products. New parents are given gift baskets upon discharge that include Johnson’s baby products.
This is an enormously huge and significant problem. The fact that we caught a major company red handed deceiving consumers in a major manner is not so unusual to me, sadly. I see it daily in my line of work. But it’s time to come to the realization that our cosmetic industry is completely out of control.
I spoke to this issue in the popular documentary Not So Pretty streaming on HBO Max. Our cosmetic industry is hurting everybody. The fewer than two pages that cover the industry in the 1938 Food Drug and Cosmetic Act are a fig leaf that give free reign to companies to not test for safety, report harmful effects, and recall their products, or warn consumers about known chemical toxins. The law is sadly outdated and does nothing to protect consumers from today’s endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Johnson’s and Johnson’s failures are the latest example.
In a time when the fate of the unborn is prime time news it is ironic that so little is being done to protect the fetus from such chemical onslaughts. The infant brain is dependent on the sex and thyroid hormones for normal development. Yet, phthalates are classic endocrine disruptors that imitate toxic forms of estrogen and interfere with the sex and thyroid hormones. The risk of altered brain function in children “is higher when the exposure occurs during periods of increased vulnerability, such as prenatal, perinatal, and early postnatal life.”
This time period is known as the brain growth spurt (BGS) period. BGS starts during the third trimester of pregnancy and continues throughout the first two years of life. During the BGS period, the central nervous system is particularly sensitive to environmental stressors, since it is going through different critical developmental processes, note researchers.
The result of such exposures is damaged goods. Phthalate-exposed kids lose IQ points, cognitive abilities, language skills, the ability to think through things and arrive at reasonable solutions. Their fertility is impaired. Gender identity may be modified and more likely somewhere between the spectrum of male and female and not quite one or the other. There will be more attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Studies conducted in South Korea of children ages 8 to 11 years reported that kids with the highest everyday levels of phthalates were more inattentive and hyperactive, displayed more symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and had lower IQ compared with those who had lower levels. The exposure levels in these studies are comparable to typical exposures in the US population.
In a follow-up study, researchers discovered correlations between phthalate metabolite concentrations and clinical measures of altered behavior as well as brain cortical thickness. Concentrations of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) metabolite, found in almost every Johnson’s product, were significantly higher in boys with ADHD than in boys without ADHD.
Some 23.16 million Americans used Johnson’s Baby Lotion in 2020, accdording to Statista.com. Another 23.53 million Americans used Johnson’s Baby Shampoo in 2020. Johnson & Johnson’s share of the baby care market worldwide was 17.9 percent in 2021.
I’ve called for a nationwide recall of all of Johnson’s products. But court cases move slowly, which is tragic. I think we will win financially, but we won’t be able to repair the potentially millions of damaged kids.
Meanwhile a generation of children is being poisoned. It’s not good for my kids, your kids, or our nation’s future.
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After a year of interviewing some of the most heroic parents in America today, I’m delighted to announce advance copies of Raising Healthy Kids: How to Protect Your Children from the Hidden Chemical Toxins In Our Everyday Lives are available. Be sure to visit Amazon.com or your favorite independent bookseller.
