CHICAGO — A St. Louis woman filed a federal lawsuit in Chicago against five cosmetic manufacturers Monday alleging their hair straightening products can cause uterine cancer.

The lawsuit, filed by Jenny Mitchell in the United States District Court for Northern Illinois, alleges that Mitchell was exposed to phthalates and endocrine disrupting chemicals in hair care products from L’Oreal USA Inc. and L’Oreal USA Products Inc., Strength of Nature Global LLC, Soft Sheen Carson (W.I.) Inc., Dabur International Ltd. and Dabur USA Inc., and Namaste Laboratories, directly and proximately leading to her uterine cancer diagnosis.

The lawsuit states that endocrine disrupting chemicals commonly found in hair straightening products can cause uterine cancer, specifically the highly toxic manufactured chemical known as DI-2-Ethylhexylphthalate, or DEHP.

As additional proof, attorneys in the lawsuit point toward a recent study released by the National Institute of Health that showed women who used chemical straighteners were at a higher risk of uterine cancer.

Of the 33,000-plus women who participated in the study over a decade, 378 of them developed uterine cancer, with those who reported using chemical hair relaxers being more than twice as likely to develop the disease as opposed to those who didn’t use them.