The suits allege that adding zinc to the products had adverse - and in some cases devastating - health effects on some users. Zinc helps bond dentures to gums.
"People are poisoned for many years and doctors are scratching their heads, trying to figure out what the problem is," said lawyer Eric Chaffin, a partner with New York-based Chaffin Luhana LLP.
"And the most reprehensible part of this is the companies have known for years about the horrific injuries that occur from zinc overload, and they did nothing about it."
Chaffin is representing 15 plaintiffs suing GSK and P&G in a case before Common Pleas Judge Sandra Moss in Philadelphia. Among the complainants, Chaffin said, are a woman who is now classified as a quadriplegic and others whose hands have deteriorated and look like claws.
Tom Kline, a well-known plaintiffs' attorney with Philadelphia's Kline & Specter, represents Diann Jones, of Schuylkill County, in a separate suit against GSK.
"To meet Diann Jones is to understand the devastating, crippling, and forever life-altering consequences of what happens when a pharmaceutical company makes a product and doesn't warn users of its problems," he said.
Jones, 44, used Poligrip for eight years after losing her teeth due to pregnancy complications. Her neurological decline began after about five years. She now uses a walker and is housebound, unable to care for her 11-year-old son
"She's done nothing wrong but use Poligrip," Kline said. "She thought she was using the equivalent of toothpaste. She didn't know that every day she was being poisoned by a heavy metal."
Kline said the fact that GSK launched a voluntary recall of Poligrip EX in Japan last week "speaks volumes."
