Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has announced a chemical contamination lawsuit against some of America’s largest manufacturers.
A statement from Paxton says the lawsuit is against 3M and DuPont and is based on the company’s alleged “misrepresentations and key omissions they made in advertising the safety of brand names such as Teflon, Stainmaster, and Scotchgard.”
The December 11 announcement alleges that for “decades, 3M and DuPont knew about the dangers of these chemicals but continued to market their beneficial use in ordinary household products.”
The legal filings entered into the court record explain the dangers of PFAS.
The filing reads, “PFAS are “persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic” (“PBT”), and exposure in humans may be associated with diseases such as cancer and decreased vaccine response. Further, PFAS, once introduced into the environment, accumulate in fish, game, and other animal and plant life, contaminate drinking water and other natural resources, and accumulate in the blood of humans. Defendants knew of these risks, knew they could not contain PFAS in their consumer products, and – as early as the 1970s – knew that their PFAS chemistry was already building up in the blood of most Americans.”
“… Nonetheless, Defendants concealed these substantial risks from consumers and the State, and for decades, they even affirmatively claimed their products were ‘safe.’”
The announcement of this action on X was immediately greeted with cheers from anti-PFAS activists such as Diane Cotter.
“Ken, take a look at what they did to your firefighters… cliff notes. Love bombed them with PFOA in their turnout gear. Commanded the science, and captured our fire institutions: IAFF, NFPA, till one firefighter in Mass got cancer – and his very annoying wife began digging in their business,” she posted.
Later, she followed up, “I think we could kick their ass in court over the firefighter turnout gear death sentence they gave us.”
Cotter is the wife of Paul Cotter, a New England fireman, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer after decades in the fire service, The Dallas Express reported.
Her husband’s cancer is typical of firemen who have been contaminated with PFAS. This set her on a journey to discover whether there were PFAS in firemen’s turnout gear. After years of fighting with the chemical makers, gear manufacturers, and the fire union, she and others proved there was.
When previously contacted by DX, DuPont denied wrongdoing.
“DuPont makes fibers that are used to produce firefighter turnout gear. We do not use short or long-chain PFAS in our fiber spinning process. Additionally, to the best of our knowledge, none of our ingredient suppliers add PFAS during the manufacture of their products,” DuPont’s spokesman said, in part.
The new lawsuit against 3M and DuPont comes after The Dallas Express repeatedly contacted the Office of Attorney General for comment as to why Paxton had not joined other state’s fire gear contamination lawsuits against 3M and DuPont, as well as other companies in the fire-protection world, such as Lion Gear.
Paxton has never addressed this matter to DX. However, the new lawsuit is directed at some of the same key players and regarding the same chemicals.
DuPont’s spokesman responded to Paxton’s suit, telling The Texas Tribune, “While we don’t comment on litigation matters, we believe this complaint is without merit, and we look forward to vigorously defending our record of safety, health and environmental stewardship.”
Representatives of 3M have not publicly responded to the lawsuit as of this writing.