Chemical giant 3M has agreed to pay $10.3 billion to stop polluting the environment. PFAS (perfluorinated substances) public water distribution systems in the US, as announced by the company itself. PFAS are toxic compounds commonly used by companies to manufacture countless kitchen utensils and daily consumer products.
A result of this commitment An agreement was reached between this American company and the lawyers of the cities that sued him in court.. In exchange for paying this $10.3 billion, they will avoid lawsuits. In addition, 3M confirms that this commitment does not imply any liability for pollution occurring in the drinking water networks of affected cities and towns.
The company will pay that amount over a 13-year period to remove the pollution they cause. by PFAS substances, which are elements that are also found in Spain according to repeated scientific reports and are responsible for many diseases. That’s why the European Union is reviewing a massive ban on hundreds of these compounds.
3M company and others in the chemical industry have in recent years thousands of complaints According to the Reuters agency, due to contamination by PFAS.
“We have reached the largest drinking water agreement in U.S. history, and this agreement will be used to help filter PFAS from public drinking water,” the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, Scott Summy, said in a statement. said. “The result will be that millions of Americans live healthier lives without PFAS in their drinking water.”
3M was due to appear in federal court in South Carolina earlier this month in a lawsuit filed by the city council of the small town of Stuart, Florida. The judge in charge of the case canceled the hearing on the morning of the hearing.
4,000 complaints against major chemical companies in the US
Stuart Council filed a lawsuit in 2018, alleging that the company manufactures or sells firefighting foams containing PFAS, which contaminate local soil and groundwater. But this is just one More than 4,000 lawsuits against 3M and other companies chemicals.
PFAS, known as “forever chemicals” because they are not easily broken down in the human body or the environment, wide product rangefrom nonstick cookware to cosmetics and is linked to cancer, hormone dysfunction and environmental damage.. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has listed PFAS as a “urgent public health and environmental problem.”
The EPA has taken several steps in recent years to tighten regulations for chemicals, and in March it announced the first national drinking water standards for the six chemicals.
Considering the public pressure, 3M has set 2025 as the deadline to stop production of PFAS.
Three other major chemical companies: Chemours Co, DuPont de Nemours Inc, and Corteva Inc announced earlier this month that they have reached a $1.19 billion agreement to contaminate US public water systems with PFAS.
In recent years and in different situations, More than a dozen US state attorneys have sued chemical companies that make PFAS and some have won major individual awards: Minnesota, for example, received $850 million from 3M in a 2018 deal.
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Contact address of the environment department: [email protected]