$30 Million Settlement for Salon Workers Who Developed Cancer After Years of Formaldehyde Exposure

For more than ten years, two Missouri hairstylists applied the same professional hair-smoothing product to clients day after day. The manufacturer sold it with a central promise: no formaldehyde. That claim turned out to be false, and the health consequences were severe.

One of the workers was diagnosed with uterine and ovarian cancer. The other was pregnant during part of her exposure, and her child was later diagnosed with leukemia. Attorneys at Humphrey, Farrington and McClain took the cases and set out to prove that the company knew the chemical was present and concealed it from the people most at risk.

The manufacturer's defense rested on a technical distinction: the product, it argued, did not contain formaldehyde directly but instead contained a different compound that releases formaldehyde when heated. The problem with that argument was apparent from the product's own instructions. The treatment was designed to be applied with heat. Workers were, in practice, generating formaldehyde vapor every time they used it as directed.

The firm argued that marketing the product as formaldehyde-free while knowing heat application would generate the chemical amounted to a deliberate concealment. Lauren McClain, one of the lead attorneys, described the manufacturer's conduct as 'egregious and outrageous,' noting the company denied the chemical was even present while workers were being exposed on the job every day.

The case resolved individually rather than through a class action. Kenneth McClain, Timothy Kingsbury, and Andrew Smith also worked the case alongside Lauren McClain. The parties, product name, and company remain confidential under the settlement terms. The $30 million resolution was reported by Missouri Lawyers Media in July 2025.