‘Industry must learn extent’ of hair dye allergies

The cosmetics industry has “no idea” of the extent to which customers are allergic to hair dye, a coroner has said following the death of a mother-of-two.

Estate agent Julie McCabe, 38, went into a coma in October 2011 after she suffered a massive allergic reaction to a chemical in her L’Oreal dye and she died a year later.

Concluding the inquest into Ms McCabe’s death, North Yorkshire coroner Geoff Fell urged L’Oreal and the cosmetics industry to do more to encourage customers to report adverse reactions and to research the problem.

Mr Fell said the industry was aware of the allergy issue but there was a “massive disconnect” between the figures quoted by cosmetics firms and those found in academic research.

He concluded the number of people allergic to hair colourant was “grossly underestimated”.

He said the industry figure was four in a million.

Mr Fell said one academic study revealed an incidence of adverse reaction to hair dye at a rate of 140,000 per one million users.

He said: “L’Oreal do not actively seek feedback. I think L’Oreal need to revisit that approach.

“Nobody has any idea how many customers are adversely affected by hair dye.

“The industry is aware of the risk of anaphylaxis but the industry, it seems to me, has no idea of the incidents of non-fatal anaphylaxis due to hair dye.”

Mr Fell said this lack of knowledge was because cosmetics firms relied on customers reporting problems which they often failed to do, partly because — like Ms McCabe — they wanted to continue using the product.

The inquest heard that as many as 50% of people who reported problems kept using the dye.

The coroner said he was aware of only one other death in the UK due to an anaphylactic reaction to hair dye.

Mr Fell decided that Ms McCabe, of Cowling, near Keighley, was aware of her allergy to the hair dye.

The three-day inquest heard that she was a regular user of the L’Oreal Recital Preference product and between 2005 and 2011 she visited the doctors up to 20 times to report rashes, itches, and other problems.

One of her GPs told the hearing there was no record that Ms McCabe had been told to stop using the product but it was “inconceivable” this advice would not have been given.

Her husband Russell told the inquest that he heard his wife scream and then say to him: “I’m struggling to breathe, I think I’m going to die,” before lapsing into a coma in October 2011.

The inquest heard she had a black henna tattoo in Dubai in 2007 and her regular reactions to her hair dye increased after this.

Coroner Geoff Fell heard expert evidence that said the tattoos contained massive amounts of paraphenylenediamine — the chemical in the hair dye which is thought to have caused her reaction — and that the tattoos increased susceptibility.

Returning an accidental death verdict, Mr Fell said that he would be writing to Britain’s Department of Business Innovation and Skills to ask it to look into increasing public awareness of this danger.

A L’Oreal spokeswoman said: “Our thoughts are with Julie McCabe’s family.”