It can stop manufacturing of all per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) by the tip of 2025 resulting from a confluence of causes that features shifting business needs and “accelerating regulatory tendencies,” 3M’s chief government officer Mike Roman told Bloomberg News.
However past “accelerating regulatory tendencies,” the corporate is going through a deluge of litigation that gained’t finish when manufacturing does. Starting in 2020, no less than 3 PFAS-related lawsuits a day have been filed towards the corporate on common, in line with a Bloomberg Regulation evaluation of litigation information. Bloomberg Regulation recognized no less than 3,287 lawsuits that point out 3M as a defendant between Jan. 1, 2020 and Dec. 19, 2022.
No less than 3,508 lawsuits towards 3M have been recognized as mentioning PFAS courting again to 2015.
The data was collected by federal courtroom docket searches, in addition to listings of lawsuits related to federal PFAS-related multidistrict litigation circumstances. Some litigation might not seem within the collected information as a result of complaints weren’t accessible by on-line looking. So it’s possible that these figures undercount the full litigation towards 3M and different corporations.
Billions of {dollars} of legal responsibility are at stake. 3M acquired a warning signal this previous summer season when a federal decide overseeing the multidistrict litigation wrapping in 1000’s of PFAS lawsuits refused to grant 3M immunity from some lawsuits resulting from its standing as a authorities contractor. The choice raised the probability of enormous settlements and even jury trials within the coming years.
The next charts reveal some necessary realities of the lawsuits 3M faces:
1. 3M is a significant defendant of PFAS claims
Click here to see this graphic on the web.
2. Nearly all of PFAS litigation is post-2020
3. Product legal responsibility claims dominate
4. Nearly all of the lawsuits are within the multidistrict litigation
