Nearly 60 lawsuits alleging that hair-softening products sold by the U.S. affiliate of L'Oreal and other companies cause cancer and other health problems will be consolidated in federal court in Chicago.

At least 57 lawsuits have been filed in federal courts across the U.S. over products that use permanent hair straightening chemicals, court filings show.

The lawsuits allege that the companies knew their products contained dangerous chemicals but sold them anyway.

The American subsidiary of L'Oreal and the branches of the Indian companies Godrej SON Holdings Inc and Dabur International Ltd have been named in the cases.

In a statement published online after the filing of the first lawsuits, L'Oréal stated that they are confident in the safety of their products and believe that the lawsuits have no legal basis.