Last October, the National Cancer Institute released a study that showed women who frequently used chemical hair relaxers straightening products, may have a higher risk of developing uterine cancer than women who do not use them.
In the study, women, who used the products at least four times a year, were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer than those who didn’t. The study was conducted by the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Within a week, multiple suits were filed against L’Oreal and other brands and companies, including Soft Sheen-Carson, Dabur International, Namaste Laboratories, Strength of Nature, and others, that manufacture and market chemical relaxers. Court documents released this month report that there are currently multiple lawsuits pending in courts across the country.
These companies knew, or should have known, that the use of the dangerous chemicals in the products would increase the risk of cancer; yet they marketed and sold them anyway.
Chemical hair straighteners typically contain products associated with higher cancer risk, including formaldehyde, metals, phthalates, and parabens, which may be more easily absorbed by the body through scalp burns and abrasions often caused by chemical straighteners.
That shocking finding is particularly alarming for Black women, who report using hair straightening products more any than other populations. In fact, Uterine cancer rates and deaths are on the rise in the U.S.
In 2022, the global Black Hair care market was estimated at $2.5 billion, with the hair relaxer market alone estimated at $718 million in 2021. It is estimated that as many as 90% of Black women and women of color in the United States have used relaxer products.
Black women have long been the victims of dangerous products specifically marketed to them. 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.
In Africa, hair was seen as a source of personal and spiritual power. One of the first things American slave masters did to enslaved people was to cut their hair. This was a way to “break their spirit and make slaves easier to control.”
Going back to the time of chattel slavery, white Americans came to see African or Black hair as something to be hidden, animalistic, or ugly, with the idea that “good hair” is equated with a straighter hair texture and that straighter hair connoted a superior character.
“The fact that these companies targeted Black and Latin women for their own profit motive…. and without regard to the serious health risks that these hair-straightening products cause is a serious wrong that needs to be corrected,”
The Insider Exclusive ‘Justice in America’ News team is on location in Baltimore, Maryland to take you behind the scenes in this new Network TV Special, “Justice in America for Women of Color” With Evelyn O. A. Darden and Mark A. Darden III, partners at the Law Offices of Addison-Darden, P.C .
To show how urgently it’s needed to shine a light on and reverse the devastating health outcomes suffered by Black women and Women of color, who have been targeted for too long by manufacturers of unsafe products,” This case is just one part of a much larger issue of bias with dire environmental and health consequences for Black women.
Evelyn and Mark have has earned reputations as unyielding trial lawyers who repeatedly represent clients against big companies and the Goliaths of the world. And repeatedly win.
They have built substantial reputations nationwide by consistently winning cases other law firms have turned down. And their amazing courtroom skills and headline grabbing success rate continue to provide their clients with the results they need……And the results they deserve.
To contact Evelyn, Mark, and their firm, please contact (410) 760-6077 office or Toll Free 855 327 3365 and visit them on-line https://addisondardenlaw.com/