Appeals court allows trial on question of asbestos in talcum powder

A state appeals court has reinstated a San Francisco cancer patient’s suit against the makers of Cashmere Bouquet talcum powder, which she used for 20 years and later learned that it may have contained potentially lethal asbestos.

Mary Lyons was diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma, a cancer commonly caused by asbestos, in October 2015. In her lawsuit against Colgate-Palmolive, she said she first used the talcum as a young child in the early 1950s, when her mother powdered her after every bath, and continued using it on her own until the early 1970s.

Colgate-Palmolive began manufacturing Cashmere Bouquet in 1871 and sold it until 1995.