The Source |Attorney Ben Crump Files Lawsuit Against L’Oreal On Behalf of Woman Claiming Relaxers Are Linked To Her Cancer

Attorney Ben Crump along with Diandra “Fu” Debrosse Zimmermann and others filed a suit against L’Oreal products and entities that assisted in the development, marketing, and sale of defective products including Motion, Dark & Lovely, Olive Oil Relaxer, and Organic Root Stimulator on behalf of 32-year-old Missouri resident, Jenny Mitchell, who has claimed to receive a uterine cancer diagnosis as a result of after years of using relaxers exposed her to cancer-causing phthalates and other chemicals found in these products  “As most young African-American girls, chemical relaxers, chemical straighteners were introduced to us at a young age,” Mitchell said. “Society has made it a norm to look a certain way, in order to feel a certain way. And I am the first voice of many voices to come that will stand, stand up to these companies, and say, ‘No more.’” Mitchell was diagnosed with uterine cancer on August 10, 2018, according to the lawsuit, and underwent a full hysterectomy at Boone Hospital Center in Missouri on September 24, 2018. “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. Mitchell continued using chemical hair-straightening products from around 2000 until March 2022, and she is seeking compensation in excess of $75,000, according to the lawsuit. Crump cited a  study conducted by the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute concluded that frequent users of chemical hair straightening products, defined in the study,  as more than four uses a year, were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer than those who didn’t use those products. “Black women have long been the victims of dangerous products specifically marketed to them,” said Crump. “Black hair has been and always will be beautiful, but Black women have been told they have to use these products to meet society’s standards. Unfortunately, we will likely discover that Ms. Mitchell’s tragic case is one of the countless cases in which companies aggressively misled black women to increase their profits.”  Unfortunately, we will discover that Ms. Mitchell’s case is one of the countless cases in which companies mislead black women to increase we will be watching to see how the brands respond.