Arizona has filed a lawsuit against L'Oréal over the cancer risk from hair-straightening products

The state of Arizona has filed a lawsuit against L'Oreal SA, alleging that the cosmetics maker concealed data showing that its hair-straightening products may cause cancer in women. The company is already facing thousands of similar lawsuits from consumers and their families, UNN reports, citing Reuters.

Details

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (a representative of the Democratic Party) filed the lawsuit in state court late Thursday evening, making Arizona the first state to bring a legal action over the alleged risk of developing cancer from using hair-straightening products. The lawsuit accuses L'Oreal of violating the state's consumer protection laws: the company sold these products (which are used primarily by African American women) without warning buyers about the potential risk of ovarian and uterine cancer.

The state is seeking fines and damages from the company, as well as a court order requiring L'Oreal to stop selling the products unless they carry a warning about the risk of cancer.

The lawsuit alleges that, by marketing these products to women and children for decades, L'Oreal and its affiliated companies "exploited centuries-old social pressure and discriminatory beauty standards affecting people of African descent, while putting profits above consumer safety."

The lawsuit was filed while the company was already a defendant in more than 12,000 similar lawsuits brought by women and their families; the cases were consolidated in federal court in Chicago as part of multidistrict litigation, a procedure intended to improve the efficiency of handling lawsuits filed in different jurisdictions.

A representative for L'Oreal did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company has previously said that its products undergo rigorous safety testing and that the allegations have neither legal nor scientific basis.