Testimony began Tuesday in Stephen Lanzo III's lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, Imerys and a related defendant, with one of Lanzo's attorneys, Joseph Satterley of Kazan McClain Satterley & Greenwood, questioning Imerys representative Patrick Downey about whether the business sold talc that contained the toxic mineral.

"So does Imerys Talc America allow talc to be sold and shipped with asbestos in it?" Satterley asked Downey in the New Brunswick courtroom.

Downey, a new product development engineering director at Imerys, replied, "Our products do not contain asbestos and it's been our goal ... to produce products that do not contain asbestos."

In the second such trial in the country — after J&J and Imerys prevailed two months ago in a California state trial — the 45-year-old Lanzo and his wife, Kendra, have alleged that he developed the deadly disease as a result of his decadeslong exposure to asbestos in Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder products, starting when his mother applied baby powder to him as an infant.

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