This Popular Hygiene Product May Cause Cancer, New Lawsuit Alleges

A new class action lawsuit is changing the way a lot of people look at their everyday hygiene habits.

In the lawsuit Vasseur v. Johnson & Johnson Consumer, Inc. et al., the plaintiff alleges that Johnson & Johnson, the makers and distributors of Listerine, fails to warn customers that Cool Mint Listerine mouthwash “causes the proliferation of certain bacteria, including but not limited to Streptococcus anginosus (S. anginosus) and Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum), each of which can cause severe invasive infections and have been closely associated with multiple potentially deadly cancers, including oral cancer, head & neck cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer, gastro-intestinal cancer, and breast cancer.”

Dr. Karen Zaghiyan, MD, FACS, FASCRS, a board-certified colorectal surgeon and TikTok and Instagram influencer, drew more attention to the suit when she discussed it on her platforms this week.

“I found it to be extremely interesting because fusobacteria is really an oral bacteria, and why in the world would it be inside somebody’s colon and inside a colorectal cancer? What really sparks a lawsuit, however, against Listerine, is another publication that recently came out earlier this summer that suggested that individuals who used twice daily Listerine mouthwash actually had a higher rate of fusobacterium species in their oral cavity,” Dr. Zaghiyan says in a video that’s since gone viral.