Study: Women using chemical hair straighteners at greater risk for uterine cancer

Women who use chemical hair straighteners frequently might be opening themselves to a greater risk of developing uterine cancer compared to women that do not use the products.

A new study published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute tracked approximately 34,000 U.S. women for more than a decade and found the risk of developing uterine cancer by the age of 70 among frequent users of hair straighteners was 4.05%, as opposed to a 1.64% rate for women who never used the product.

The study did not find uterine cancer links with other hair products, including dyes or perms. Sixty percent of the respondents in the new study identified as being Black women, and this demographic has a uterine cancer fatality rate that is twice the rate of White women.