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Texas Legal professional Common Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Wednesday in opposition to chemical giants 3M and DuPont, accusing them of decades-long misrepresentations and omissions concerning the protection of PFAS, or “forever chemicals,” bought to be used in numerous client merchandise.
These merchandise, bought underneath model names comparable to Teflon, Stainmaster, and Scotchgard, have been staples in households throughout the nation regardless of mounting proof that they comprise chemical compounds which can be dangerous to human well being.
“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 mentioned in a press launch. “Texas is taking action to penalize these companies and hold them accountable for deceiving Texans into buying consumer products without vital information.”
Representatives of 3M and DuPont couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, belong to a household of artifical chemical compounds used to make merchandise that resist warmth, oil, stains, grease, and water. Some estimates checklist greater than 12,000 sorts of particular person PFAS. They’ve been utilized in business and client merchandise worldwide because the Forties and have earned the title “forever chemicals” as a result of they don’t break down and may persist in water and soil indefinitely.
Publicity to PFAS has been linked to sure kinds of most cancers, beginning defects, harm to the liver and immune system. In addition they accumulate in animals, crops, and people, contaminating ingesting water and even circulating in human blood.
The lawsuit was filed in Johnson County 9 days after a Texas Tribune story featured farmers in that county who have sued a fertilizer firm, alleging the fertilizer they promote, which is constituted of municipal waste, contained PFAS that poisoned their land and killed their livestock. The farmers say they don’t seem to be capable of make a residing off their very own land due to the contamination.
Many different farmers in different elements of the nation have additionally shut down their operations attributable to PFAS contamination after utilizing fertilizer constituted of “biosolids” produced from human waste.
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In keeping with the lawsuit, 3M and DuPont marketed their PFAS merchandise for greater than 70 years regardless of figuring out the hazards for greater than half a century. The go well with alleges that the businesses hid essential dangers, misrepresented security claims, and continued selling the chemical compounds as secure for client use.
Texas had already taken authorized motion in opposition to PFAS producers, together with a lawsuit in opposition to Aqueous Movie Forming Foam, a firefighting product that has polluted Texas lands and waterways.
“Attorney General Paxton has been at the forefront of holding companies responsible for exposing people to dangerous ‘forever chemicals.’ ” mentioned a press release from the AG’s workplace. “Today’s lawsuit marks a new stage in PFAS litigation.”
Texas has discovered PFAS contamination in some ingesting water techniques: Almost 50 public water techniques throughout the state have reported exceeding the U.S. Environmental Safety Company’s newly-released PFAS limits for ingesting water.
