Rep. Clarke introduces bill to study link between chemical hair straighteners and uterine cancer

September 20, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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CAPITOL HILL — THE LINK BETWEEN UTERINE CANCER AND HAIR STRAIGHTENERS that many Black women use is the focus of new legislation that Brooklyn Congressmember Yvette D. Clarke (D-09) is introducing on Tuesday, Sept. 24. Clarke and her colleagues, Reps. Shontell Brown of Ohio and Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, will hold a joint press conference on the introduction of their Uterine Cancer Study Act 2024, which would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) to coordinate and conduct a study on the relationship between chemical hair straighteners and uterine cancer. Recent studies have discovered that women who used these hair straightening products were at higher risk for uterine cancer than those who have not.

The study also directs the aforementioned federal agencies to review significant findings and recommendations from other studies regarding the relationship between hair straighteners and uterine cancer and is to be completed within two years of the bill becoming law.

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