L'Oreal Responds to the Carcinogenic Case of its Products

Recently, L'Oreal has been questioned about the cancer risk of its products. Previously, P&G, Johnson & Johnson and other leading beauty groups were also involved in several hair products cancer fiascoes.

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L'Oreal, whose performance rose sharply in the first nine months of this year, has recently been in trouble.

According to AFP, recently (October 21), a consumer who is a long-time L'Oreal hair straightener in the United States, filed a civil lawsuit against L'Oreal. The consumer claims that L'Oreal hair straightener products have increased her risk of developing uterine cancer and is therefore seeking compensation.

Some analysts believe that if the lawsuit is unsuccessful, L'Oreal will pay a large amount of compensation to the consumer.

The product "caused cancer"?

According to media reports, the consumer is an African-American woman who was found to have uterine cancer and had her uterus removed after using "these dangerous products" for nearly 20 years, her attorney said in an announcement. In addition, the attorneys cited a recent large-scale study released by the National Institutes of Health on Oct. 17, 2022, which said that women who regularly use hair straighteners have double the risk of developing uterine cancer compared to non-users.

Based on the above, on October 21, 2022, she filed a civil lawsuit against L'Oréal for damages.

It is actually not uncommon for perm and dye products to be caught in a cancer-causing case. An industry source pointed out, "From the point of time of the lawsuit, this time L'Oreal was sued by consumers may have more to do with the results of a study released by the National Institutes of Health."

CHAILEEDO learned that the study included 33,497 U.S. women aged 35 to 74. They participated in a study led by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, which aimed to identify risk factors for breast cancer and other health problems. The women were followed for nearly 11 years, during which time 378 cases of uterine cancer were diagnosed.

The study noted that several chemicals (such as parabens, BPA, metals and formaldehyde) found in hair-straightening products by researchers may increase the risk of uterine cancer. Among other things, "women who used hair straightening products frequently (more than 4 times in the past 1 year) were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer as women who did not use such products."

In other words, the study concluded that women who used chemical hair straightening products had a higher risk of developing uterine cancer compared to women who did not use these products.

Also according to public information, as of 2018, Johnson & Johnson was awarded nearly $4.7 billion by a local U.S. court to compensate 22 women in the sensational "Johnson & Johnson talcum powder" incident. According to an analysis, "If the lawsuit is lost, L'Oreal will pay huge amounts of compensation to consumers and will also face a series of lawsuits."

It is worth mentioning that in the survey from the National Institutes of Health, the researchers did not collect information on the brands or ingredients of hair care products used by women. In other words, the results of this study do not directly prove that L'Oreal hair straightening products have cancer risks.

On Oct. 24, L'Oreal China told CHAILEEDO on the matter, "All straight hair products sold by L'Oreal in China are in full compliance with relevant national regulations and have been evaluated for safety."

"That problem has occurred many times." On the issue of L'Oreal being sued by consumers, a senior R&D engineer told CHAILEEDO, "From the standpoint of ingredients alone, parabens, bisphenol A, metals and formaldehyde do have a relatively high risk of causing cancer. But hair coloring and perming products are all wash-and-go products with a relatively short stay on the scalp, and the real carcinogenic risk is also related to the use method and the number of uses."

At the same time, the engineer also said that for some of the key ingredients that work in hair perm products, there are no alternative ingredients available on the market, "such as aniline substances for hair coloring, it is difficult to be completely replaced."

Timely popularization of science is particularly important

An engineer said, formulas designed in strict accordance with cosmetic safety specifications do not need to worry about carcinogenic problems, which is also a worldwide safety consensus.

In fact, not only L'Oreal but also the brands of head beauty groups such as P&G and Johnson & Johnson have been involved in several carcinogenic controversies of hair products. What's more, they have also been questioned by the public about the quality of their products, resulting in damage to their brand image.

For example, in December 2021, P&G was also put in the limelight when Pantene and other products were exposed to the detection of benzene, a class I carcinogen. In response, P&G said in a related announcement that the amount of benzene detected from the products involved was not expected to have a negative impact on health and that no adverse events related to the recall had been reported as of the announcement. However, the product recall is still underway for prudential reasons.

At the same time, P&G China also responded to the matter, saying that "all shampoo and hair care products manufactured and sold in the Chinese market comply with the relevant national regulatory standards and are of safe and reliable quality".

Even so, many netizens did not accept it, saying, "I hope P&G will pay more attention to the safety of their products and production process in the future, so as not to betray the trust of consumers, after all, Class I carcinogens are indeed very scary." "I hope they research and develop products properly, and do it with care so that consumers can use the peace of mind, not to make money with poor things as materials."

As for perm and hair-dye products, CHAILEEDO also found that China Pharmaceutical News (a trade newspaper directly under the National Medical Products Administration) has also repeatedly popularized science to the public, saying that cancer is a long process that needs to be accumulated. For products such as regular production of hair dyes, the risk is controllable as long as they are used correctly, and the risk of cancer from using such products is extremely small.

However, at a time when consumers are paying more and more attention to life and health, the quality and safety of cosmetics, as products that come into direct contact with human skin, are naturally being taken more and more seriously by consumers. In this context, if a product quality issue is brought to the attention of public opinion, it will also dilute consumers' trust in their products. From the side, the brand also needs to further improve quality control, timely respond to consumer queries, do not let consumers have a "crisis of trust" in the brand.