Nearly 60 lawsuits claiming that hair relaxer products sold by L'Oreal USA and other companies cause cancer and other health problems will be consolidated in a Chicago court, with many more expected to follow in coming weeks, reports Reuters.
At least 57 lawsuits have been filed in federal courts countrywide over the products, which use chemicals to permanently straighten textured hair. The lawsuits allege that the companies knew their products contained dangerous chemicals but sold them anyway.
The actions will be centralised into a multi-district litigation before Judge Mary Rowland.
The cases name the US subsidiary of L'Oreal SA and subsidiaries of India-based companies Godrej SON Holdings and Dabur International, which have opposed centralisation of the cases.
The lawsuits follow the October publication of a National Institutes of Health study that found women who used the products multiple times a year were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer.
Diandra Debrosse Zimmermann of DiCello Levitt, who filed the first case after the study was published, said she expects many more firms to file their cases in the coming weeks, and estimates that thousands of women could end up suing over the products, which are typically marketed to women of colour.
In a statement, L'Oreal said it is “confident in the safety of our products and believe the recent lawsuits filed against us have no legal merit”.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
US lawsuit claims L’Oreal’s hair straighteners caused cancer
Uterine cancer risk linked to hair-straightening products – US study
Hair products contain dangerous amounts of formaldehyde
Use of permanent hair dye and cancer risk