Hair Relaxer Lawsuits Exceed Fifty And Could Be Consolidated Into MDL

Thousands of chemical hair straightener lawsuits could be filed this year

Thursday, January 26, 2023 - Reuters reported the other day that at least 54 chemical hair relaxer lawsuits have been filed against the manufacturers of chemical hair straighteners. Legal experts think that thousands more cases could be filed in 2023 and beyond as word of hair relaxers uterine cancer gets out. Beauticians specializing in a type of hair treatment called "perms" could be at risk as they are exposed to the deadly toxic chemicals in hair relaxers every day. Lawsuits estimate that using chemical hair relaxers more than four times per year could lead to developing uterine, breast, and ovarian cancer. Beauticians could also be exposed to the toxic fumes emitted when hair is straightened during a full beauty treatment using a flat iron and the formaldehyde and other carcinogens in chemical hair relaxers are "vaporized" and inhaled. "Court records show at least 54 cases have been filed in federal courts across the country over the products, which claim to permanently straighten textured hair. The suits follow the October release of a study done by The National Institutes of Health that found women who used the products several times a year were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer," CNN wrote. A motion has been filed to consolidate the cases into multidistrict litigation (MDL) under a single Federal judge. MDL is the preferred system to streamline repetitive administrative procedures and discovery. MDL uses Daubert hearings to hear expert scientific evidence from both sides and to decide on several experts from both sides who will be allowed to testify. Both sides are allowed to bring two or three of their best cases to trial as bellwethers that could encourage the defendant to offer a settlement rather than go to court any longer.

Hair relaxer lawsuits against international brand L'Oreal and other manufacturers are gathering steam from both a financial and civil rights perspective. It is obvious based on the packaging alone that Black women and women of color were targeted by the photographic artwork featuring a young black woman with straightened hair on the cover of the product's packaging and elsewhere in the company's marketing scheme. The inference here is that a Black women can improve their appearance if they use the product and their hair straightened. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump took offense to the implications of the products packaging and advertising as well as being outraged at the company's failure to warn women that the chemicals in hair relaxers/straighteners were toxic and now irrefutably linked to developing uterine, breast, and ovarian cancer. Crump filed the first personal injury lawsuit last year on behalf of a woman who developed cancer allegedly from using the product. According to CNN, "Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, counsel Diandra "Fu" Debrosse Zimmermann, and others filed a lawsuit Friday in Illinois on behalf of 32-year-old Missouri resident Jenny Mitchell, claiming that Mitchell's uterine cancer "was directly and proximately caused by her regular and prolonged exposure to phthalates and other endocrine disrupting chemicals found in Defendants' hair care products." Women with uterine cancer often require a hysterectomy as treatment leaving them unable to bear children, a tremendously emotionally damaging event. "At that time, at the age of 28, my dreams of becoming a mother were gone," she said. In the lawsuit, she claims to have no family history of cancer or uterine cancer." According to CNN Ms. Mitchell started using chemical hair straightener at age 8, was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 2018, and underwent a full hysterectomy a month thereafter.

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