After last week's announced legal action by the state of Michigan, 3M, DuPont and other manufacturers of PFAS chemicals and their predecessors are facing suits from across the globe.
For example, 3M is presently being sued by the government of Guam, among others.
According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, 3M has entered into an $850 million pollution settlement over PFAS with the state of Minnesota. It settled a $35 million case with an Alabama water authority in April.
The company, according to media reports, is facing relatively new lawsuits from the state of New York (filed last fall), which were preceded by suits filed by the states of New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Vermont in the spring and summer of 2019.
Data assembled by the Environmental Work Group suggests that PFAS contamination may be present in at a total of 610 sites, spread across 43 states.
An online map showing contamination at military sites, in drinking water, and at other known sites (current as of October 2019) shows Michigan among the top two or three most-contaminated states.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel argued that Michigan is actually closer to the front of the line on the PFAS litigation than it is with its lawsuit against opioid manufacturers.
"Am I concerned that we'll be able to get the necessary amount of money, given that there will be multiple suits?" asked Nessel. "I am, but on the other hand, in the opioid litigation, I'd say we were on the tail end. There were so many, dozens of other states that had already filed. On the PFAS we'd be the third or fourth state. So, we are starting this at an earlier process."
Just as with Michigan, officials from other states contend that 3M and others who produced PFAS chemicals knew exactly what they were dealing with and what they were doing.
"The companies we're suing today knew full-well the risks involved with these harmful chemicals, but chose to foul our soil, waterways, and other precious natural resources," New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal was quoted by The Wall Street Journal on March 27 of last year when his state filed suit against 3M.
3M, the historic major producer of PFAStype chemicals, also is being sued by business customers who purchased PFAS-based chemicals to waterproof products as well as facing legal claims from farmers impacted by PFAS water contamination from nearby military installations.
In total, The Minneapolis Star Tribune is pegging the potential legal and environmental liabilities facing 3M alone as approaching $10 billion. The mounting legal liability costs facing 3M has led to questions about the value of the industrial giant. Over the past year, 3M stock has ranged from a high of $219 a share to low of $150 a share. It's presently trading in the $180 range, according to Marketwatch.
In early December, Barron's reported that 3M stock is being given a "thumbs down" as the company faces cleanup, not potential legal liability, costs of between $100 million and $850 million per state, according to some estimates, with between 3 and 10 states affected.
Likewise, DuPont faces substantial legal liability of its own.
A New York Times article contends that DuPont's history with purchasing PFAS or PFOA from 3M began as far back as 1951 and that company documents released under court order showed that DuPont and 3M had conducted secret medical studies on PFAS for more than four decades. Records also indicate that DuPont discharged into surface waters thousands of tons of PFAS powder.
"In 1961, DuPont researchers found that the chemical could increase the size of the liver in rats and rabbits," reads the New York Times article. Later, studies found the chemical caused birth defects in rats and that workers handling the chemical had high levels of it in their bloodstreams.
Documents forced into the public spotlight by court actions showed that DuPont, by the 1990s, was aware from its own tests that the chemicals caused cancerous testicular, pancreatic and liver tumors in lab animals.
By October 2016, DuPont was facing 3,535 personal-injury lawsuits.
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