Arizona Sues L'Oreal Over Hair Relaxer Cancer Claims

According to CNBC, Arizona has sued L'Oreal, accusing the cosmetics company of hiding evidence that its hair relaxer products could cause cancer in women. Arizona Attorney General Kristin Mayes filed the lawsuit late Thursday in state court, making Arizona the first state to sue over alleged cancer risks tied to hair relaxers. The complaint says L'Oreal violated state consumer protection laws by marketing the products without warning consumers about alleged risks of ovarian and uterine cancers. Arizona is seeking penalties, damages and a court order that would force L'Oreal to stop selling the products unless it warns of the cancer risk. The lawsuit comes as L'Oreal faces more than 12,000 similar lawsuits that have been consolidated in a Chicago federal court as part of multidistrict litigation. L'Oreal has said its products undergo rigorous safety reviews and that the claims lack legal or scientific merit. The products have been sold under names including Dark and Lovely and Optimum, and the first lawsuits followed a 2022 National Institutes of Health study that found women who used the products several times a year were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer.