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A new lawsuit alleges that Johnson & Johnson and more than a dozen other companies failed to warn consumers, as required under California's Prop 65 law, that their talcum powder products could cause cancer.

The suit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court by Simmons Hanly Conroy and two other firms, comes six months after the dismissal of a similar Prop 65 suit against Johnson & Johnson. The new case alleges that defendants, in formulating cosmetic talc in 1976, included arsenic and other dangerous chemicals in their products that consumers know nothing about.

"This is a public health crisis that has gone unchecked for decades," said Trent Miracle, a shareholder at Simmons Hanly in Alton, Illinois. "The defendants, who represent brands trusted by millions of consumers, have to be held accountable for causing so much harm and putting so many more people at risk."

The two other law firms filing the suit were Chicago's Abtahi Law Group and South Carolina firm McGowan, Hood & Felder.

In addition to Johnson & Johnson, the suit names Gold Bond maker Sanofi SA and Bausch Health Companies Inc. It also includes retailers CVS Health Corp., Dollar General Corp., Target Corp., Walgreen Co., and Walmart Inc., which sell generic brands of talcum powder products, and their suppliers, Davion Inc., Garcoa Inc., Personal Care Products, Premier Brands of America Inc. and Thornton Industries Inc.

A Sanofi spokeswoman said in an email: "Our Gold Bond Powder products, including all of the ingredients in them, are safe when they are used as directed."

A Walgreen's spokesperson declined to comment, and the other defendants did not respond to requests for comment.

Prop 65, officially California's Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, requires businesses to provide a "clear and reasonable warning" before exposing consumers to carcinogens and other toxins, as defined in California.

In July, a federal judge dismissed a similar Prop 65 suit brought by attorney Mark Lanier, despite opposition from Johnson & Johnson, the only defendant in the case. Johnson & Johnson had argued that Lanier, of the Lanier Law Firm, was stalling the case, which had been set for an Oct. 15 trial.

Lanier had moved to voluntarily dismiss the case due to newly discovered evidence and requested to add more defendants, such as retailer Claire's, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found had sold products containing asbestos, and Valeant Pharmaceuticals, now owned by Bausch Health, one of the defendants in the new lawsuit.

Lanier's case, filed in 2018, had involved seven California residents who claim they or their loved ones were misled about the safety of Johnson & Johnson's baby powder and Shower to Shower products, which both contain asbestos, a known carcinogen in California. Originally filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, his case sought to slap Prop 65 labels on Johnson & Johnson's baby powder and Shower to Shower products, plus obtain restitution and civil penalties of $2,500 per day for each violation.

The new case, filed by California resident Jan Graham, seeks the same penalties and Prop 65 labels on the defendants' products, or, as an alternative, demands replacing talc with cornstarch.

Unlike Lanier's case, which focused on asbestos, the new lawsuit alleges that the talc industry, in attempting to reformulate "talc" as defined in cosmetic products, introduced arsenic, lead and hexavalent chromium into their products.

"The industry has done so in a patent effort to mislead consumers and the general public that the talc used in cosmetics was free of carcinogens or reproductive toxins," the lawsuit says.

The Prop 65 case is separate from the thousands of lawsuits brought by people alleging they got ovarian cancer or mesothelioma from a lifetime of using Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder products. Juries, including those in California, have hit Johnson & Johnson with several verdicts, but the company also has won some. In 2018, a jury in St. Louis awarded $4.7 billion to 22 women, represented by Lanier, who alleged they got ovarian cancer from using Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder products.