Texas AG Paxton sues DuPont, 3M for marketing 'forever chemical' products as safe

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed a lawsuit Wednesday against corporate giants 3M, DuPont, and Corteva — the corporate remnant of a 2015 DuPont spin-off — for allegedly misleading consumers over the course of multiple decades about the safety of certain products containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or "forever chemicals."

The suit claims that while profiting from the sale of materials under well-known brand names such as Scotchgard and Teflon, the companies knew that PFAS posed risks both to people's health and the environment.

"These companies knew for decades that PFAS chemicals could cause serious harm to human health yet continued to advertise them as safe for household use around families and children," Paxton said in a statement. "Texas is taking action to penalize these companies and hold them accountable for deceiving Texans into buying consumer products without vital information."

PFAS, a group of roughly 15,000 synthetic chemicals, have been used globally in clothing, food packaging, lubricants, cookware, firefighting foam, upholstery, and other consumer products since the 1950s.

A 2015 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found PFAS in the blood of approximately 97% of Americans.

According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Science, studies have found possible links between forever chemicals and various adverse health outcomes including increased risk of certain cancers; diminished immune systems; increased risk of childhood obesity; decreased bone mineral density following exposure in adolescence; increased risk of Type 2 diabetes in women; and altered metabolism.

Citing the current peer-reviewed scientific literature, the Environmental Protection Agency indicated that exposure to PFAS could lead to decreased fertility; increased high blood pressure in pregnant women; developmental delays in children, "including low birth weight, accelerated puberty, bone variations, or behavioral changes"; increased risk of cancers such as prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers; hormonal destabilization; and increased cholesterol levels.

The lawsuit alleges that 3M and DuPont engaged in false, misleading, or deceptive acts in violation of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act by misrepresenting the nature of certain products and failing to disclose information about those products that would otherwise have scared consumers away.

'Defendants marketed products containing harmful PFAS chemicals for over 70 years and were aware of the harmful effects of PFAS chemicals for over 50 years.'

"PFAS are 'persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic,' and exposure in humans may be associated with diseases such as cancer and decreased vaccine response," the lawsuit states. "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."

The lawsuit is replete with examples of the companies encountering shocking facts about forever chemicals, then sweeping the damning information under the chemically treated proverbial rug.

According to the lawsuit, "Old DuPont," or E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company — which apparently knew PFAS were toxic to animals and humans as early as the 1960s — conducted a blood sampling study of pregnant or recently pregnant employees in 1981, discovering that two of the eight women who worked with Teflon had children with birth defects in their eyes or face. The company allegedly told its employees that "there is no known evidence that our employees have been exposed to [certain PFAS] levels that pose adverse health effects."

3M conducted studies on PFAS on monkeys and rats in the 1970s that yielded disturbing results. Despite finding that certain PFAS affected the liver and gastrointestinal tracts of test subjects, the company apparently chose not to reveal these harms to consumers.

The filing noted, "Defendants marketed products containing harmful PFAS chemicals for over 70 years and were aware of the harmful effects of PFAS chemicals for over 50 years. Despite this knowledge, Defendants continued to market PFAS products and chemicals in Texas and elsewhere as safe for consumer use, misrepresent their environmental and biological risks, and conceal risks of harm from the public."

The Dallas Morning News highlighted that this lawsuit follows both Connecticut's January lawsuit against 3M, DuPont, and dozens of other companies for allegedly contaminating its natural resources and a class-action lawsuit filed in August in Minnesota accusing 3M, DuPont, Corteva, and Chemours of covering up the health hazards of the forever chemicals used in their products.

Last year, 3M reached a $10.3 billion settlement with numerous cities and towns over claims that its PFAS contaminated drinking water.

3M and Corteva reportedly did not immediately respond to the Dallas Morning News' requests for comment.

Daniel Turner, a spokesman for DuPont, told The Hill that the company has never manufactured PFOA and PFOS, two types of PFAS chemicals. The Hill noted that in 2015 DuPont spun off its division that makes forever chemical-containing products.

"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," said Turner.

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