New York sues PFAS 'forever chemical' manufacturers

New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing some of the nation's largest chemical and agricultural companies for contributing to decades of toxic polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) pollution in New York through their use in consumer products.

The companies named are 3M Company (3M), EIDP, Inc. (EIDP), The Chemours Company, Inc. (Chemours), Corteva, Inc. (Corteva), and DuPont De Nemours, Inc. (DuPont).

The PFAS components are known as “forever chemicals” because of their ability to persist in the environment without breaking down.

Some PFAS are associated with an increased risk of cancer, birth defects, pregnancy complications, high cholesterol, hormone issues, and a wide range of other health problems.

“Big companies like 3M and DuPont knowingly sold toxic products that threatened New Yorkers’ health and polluted our environment for decades. It’s time for them to pay for the damage they caused,” said James. “For far too long, our communities have unfairly shouldered the costs of protecting people from these toxic forever chemicals and cleaning up their contamination.”

James is seeking a court order holding the companies liable for the environmental and public health damage they have caused, requiring them to fund cleanup efforts throughout New York, and ordering them to properly warn consumers about their products’ risks. The lawsuit also seeks damages, restitution, and other financial penalties. 

In 2024, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton sued 3M, Corteva, DuPont, and EIDP (PDF) for misrepresenting the safety of PFAS-containing products like Teflon, Stainmaster, and Scotchgard. The lawsuit is still underway. New York’s lawsuit follows a similar argument as the Texas lawsuit, alleging that these companies misled the public on the safety of PFAS-containing products like Stainmaster carpets, cosmetics, and grease-resistant coatings.

Health effects

PFAS were first developed in the 1940s and were used in a wide variety of consumer products for their water and oil-repellant properties. Companies such as 3M and DuPont began manufacturing and selling these chemicals for use in consumer products to create water and stain-resistant fabric treatments, water-repellant clothing, food packaging, non-stick cookware, cosmetics, and more.

Regular use of these products released toxic PFAS into the environment and consumers’ bodies, posing substantial environmental and health risks, James said.

The lawsuit alleges that the companies knew early on that PFAS were toxic, persistent, and accumulated in humans, plants, and animals, yet hid this information from the public. As early as the 1970s, researchers at 3M had discovered PFAS in blood samples from the company’s employees and the general public, and knew that their products were toxic.

In 1981, DuPont secretly monitored 50 of its female employees who were exposed to one of its PFAS products. Its data showed that two of the seven pregnant workers who were exposed had babies with eye and nostril defects, the suit alleges. Rather than inform its employees or regulators of the results, DuPont abandoned the study and continued to manufacture and sell that PFAS product, James argues.

Environmental effects

The lawsuit also alleges the companies knew that their products caused environmental damage. For example, in 1983, 3M scientists concluded that PFAS could pollute the water supply through wastewater, yet for decades 3M failed to conduct any of the environmental risk assessments its researchers recommended.

Instead, the companies continued to aggressively produce, market, and sell chemical products containing PFAS they knew to be toxic while misleading consumers about their safety, the lawsuit alleges. Even when the companies phased out their use of certain PFAS products, they failed to warn consumers about products that were still for sale or already in their homes containing these toxic chemicals. In other cases, harmful PFAS were merely replaced with similarly toxic compounds.

Attorney General James alleges that the companies violated New York laws by producing, marketing, and selling products containing chemicals they knew to be harmful to New Yorkers’ health and the environment for decades.

James is seeking a court order holding the companies liable for the environmental and public health effects of their PFAS products and requiring them to fund cleanup efforts to rid communities of the toxic chemicals. The lawsuit also seeks to prevent the companies from selling any products containing harmful PFAS without adequate warnings, and to end any misleading advertising.