Washington:
An American woman who developed uterine cancer after using hair straightening chemicals sold by L’Oreal USA sued the company Friday, her lawyer said.
The woman, Jenny Mitchell, said in the civil lawsuit that she had used the products for more than two decades and was then struck by uterine cancer that forced her to undergo a full hysterectomy.
The suit comes just days after the publication of a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute linking the use of chemicals to straighten hair with uterine cancer.
The study found that women who used the products more than four times a year were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer than those who did not use the products.
Uterine cancer is relatively rare, but its incidence is increasing in the United States, especially among black women.
“Black women have long been victims of dangerous products marketed specifically for them,” Ben Crump, a personal injury attorney for Mitchell, said in a statement.
Friday’s civil lawsuit demands damages from, among others, the American branch of L’Oréal, the French cosmetics giant.
“We’re likely to find that Ms. Mitchell’s tragic case is one of countless cases where companies aggressively misled black women to increase their profits,” Crump said.
L’Oréal has not immediately responded to the charges.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)