After a study from the National Institutes of Health found an alleged link between L’Oréal hair-straightening products and uterine cancer, at least one major hair straightener lawsuit has already been filed against the company – and if you’ve bought similar products in the past, you should be aware of the accusations made against it.

In the lawsuit – filed in late October 2022 in federal court in Chicago – the plaintiff, Jennifer Mitchell, said she was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 2018 after she claimed she used L’Oréal’s products since about 2000.

In the complaint, Mitchell claimed that her uterine cancer diagnosis was “directly and proximately caused” by her “regular and prolonged exposure to phthalates and other endocrine disrupting chemicals” allegedly found in the company’s hair straightening products.

She also accused L’Oréal of marketing its hair-straightening products to Black women and girls and failing to warn of risks, despite knowing since at least 2015 that the products contained potentially dangerous chemicals, according to Reuters.

Mitchell is Black, and approximately 60 percent of the participants of the NIH study who reported using straighteners in the past year self-identified as Black women, according to the study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. That study found that women who reported regular use of hair straightening products – more than four times in the previous year – were more than twice as likely to later develop uterine cancer when compared to those who didn’t use the products.

“It is unfortunate that any consumer product should be so widely used, in any age group, with an extraordinarily high risk of cancer in the African-American female population,” said Lowell Finson of Finson Law Firm, who is working with Phillips Law Group on possible cases involving these products.

In addition to uterine cancer, there is also some evidence that the use of hair-straightening products could allegedly lead to other health problems including ovarian or cervical cancers, uterine fibroids, endometriosis, or breast cancer.

If you or a loved one have been diagnosed with one of these health issues and have a history of use of hair-straightening products, please call us or fill out the contact forms on this site for more information.

The team at Phillips Law Group is committed to seeking justice for those who have been harmed by defective or dangerous products, and we would be happy to discuss your possible legal options with you.