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PFAS Lawsuit
If you believe you have been exposed to PFAS submit here for a free & private consultation.
What are PFAS?
Not all Americans know about PFAS yet (pronounced PEE-fasz) – otherwise forever chemicals – but they are infiltrating our water, food, and air. We released the molecules – and by “we,” we mean man. Since they’re designed to do things natural chemicals can’t, e.g., resist fire and water and stains, they’re also unnatural because they don’t disintegrate for centuries.
Every one of the fast-spreading molecules launched into the environment in the 1950s, with the advent of nonstick cookware, is still with us today, not to mention all the other ones that have amassed since. Worse, they thrive in living tissue, toxins accumulating where they don’t belong and upping the risk of illnesses like liver damage, thyroid disease, obesity, fertility problems, and the Big C (cancer) in humans and animals.
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We’re changing the narrative about lawsuits.™
“Toxic forever chemicals are on the rise in Lake Michigan, an alarming finding that reflects how the Great Lakes act like sponges soaking up pollution from near and far.”
Chicago Tribune, June 4, 2024
What Does the Latest Research on PFAS Show?
PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl) molecules have a chain of linked carbon and fluorine atoms. Because the carbon-fluorine bond is one of the strongest, these chemicals do not degrade easily in the environment, says the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Reuters reported.2
wo new investigations found that concentrations are much higher near urban areas rather than rural or mountain settings farther away from industry. Even concentrations found in polluted air, which is the 2nd-fastest conduit, vary greatly.
But one environmental element was found to spread PFAS equally across the Great Lakes, which hold 95% of US freshwater and supply drinking water to 40 million people in the US and Canada: rain.
“Levels detected in rainfall were the same near Chicago and at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, 223 miles northeast across Lake Michigan near Traverse City,” per the Tribune.
Another study conducted by Indiana University and Canadian researchers concluded that Lake Michigan does not currently exceed the federal limit and will therefore only require consistent testing rather than a costly overhaul at this point.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) in May 2024 advised that the northernmost Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, and Huron) are “generally accumulating PFAS,” as well as PFOS and PFOA [two of the most hazardous PFAS].3
Lake Erie has the lowest concentration and Lake Huron is holding steady. Lake Ontario has the highest density of all the Great Lakes, likely because it is shallow and downstream from the three northernmost lakes, according to ACS.
The other study, performed by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), confirmed to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) in February 2024 that 70 million Americans drink tap water that tested positive for PFAS – and that only covers one-third of public water supplies.4
The Administration Has Set New Regulations.
There’s some good news. For the first time, on April 10, 2024, the EPA finalized regulations for perfluoroalkyls and polyfluoroalkyls that from now on require municipal water systems to remove the 6 most toxic chemicals in PFAS impacting about 50% of the tap water we drink across all 50 states.
“This is significant… a really big deal,” wrote Lisa Friedman from the Climate Desk at The New York Times, a beat she’s covered for 15 years. Friedman also wrote that cleanup will be massive and expensive, a big headache for a lot of US water utility companies that exceed limits and are compelled to modernize their equipment to filter more PFAS out of drinking water on a tight deadline. If a utility is found in breach of the limits, it has 5 years to modernize by 2029.5
For now the rules only apply to drinking water, not commerce. But…
What Do You Need to Know About the PFAS Lawsuit?
While EPA standards only apply to drinking water systems and do not directly regulate manufacturers, “the lawsuit could be an example of how drinking water systems could use the regulations in court to their benefit.”
You may qualify to participate in the PFAS lawsuit if you’ve been exposed to contaminated drinking water or firefighting foam and experienced related medical issues, such as the ones we mentioned earlier: thyroid or fertility & pregnancy issues, cancer (particularly liver or testicular), obesity, and more.
Since PFAS aren’t found naturally in the Earth’s environment, their presence in your bloodstream suggests you may have been harmed by the company that released them.
The litigation is likely to be centralized in a federal court in South Carolina where hundreds of similar cases have converged. So far in South Carolina, several significant settlements have totaled more than $11 billion (Reuters).
Defendants are water systems and major chemical companies like:
• DuPont
• 3M
• Chemours
• Corteva
• Dalkin America
• Tyco Fire Products (a subsidiary of Johnson Controls)
• Toray Flurofibers America
• Buckeye Fire Equipment
For more than half a century, 3M and DuPont de Nemours & Co. used PFAS to make thousands of end products from clothing and shoes to toys, electronic devices, and firefighting chemicals without telling anybody what damage they could do in the long run to the environment and humans (also animals and aquatic wildlife).
“A new lawsuit filed by public drinking water systems in California against manufacturers of toxic ‘forever chemicals’ is among the first to cite new Biden administration regulations that set strict limits for the chemicals in about 5,000 public water sources,” according to the Reuters article.
How Can You Protect Your Family From PFAS?
We all know you can’t change the past, but here’s what can be done, according to the Environmental Protection Agency:
Public Water: If you get your water from a public drinking water system, find out if PFAS are in your drinking water. Contact your local water utility to learn about how they may be addressing PFAS, and request that they test the water for PFAS if they haven’t already done it. Ask to see the results. If they can’t provide the information you want, you may decide to test your own water. Please be sure to use a state-certified lab following EPA testing methods.
Private Wells: It is advisable to have private well water tested to compare the levels with new federal limits.
In-Home Filters: If money allows, you may want to consider an in-home water treatment (e.g., system of filters) certified to lower the concentration of PFAS in your water.
Contaminated Fish: Stay away from eating fish from waterways affected by PFAS. Contact your state or tribal fish advisory programs using EPA’s list of state, territory, and tribal fish advisory contacts.
Consumer Products: Despite recent efforts to remove some of the most toxic PFAS from the manufacturing industry, some products and indoor air/dust may still contain PFAS. If you have questions or concerns about products you use in your home across the board, you may contact the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Consumer Ombudsman at (301) 504-8120, or email ConsumerOmbudsman@cpsc.gov, or visit the CSPC’s website.
Here are resource links to keep up with the latest updates:
Federal
Federal agencies are required to give you a format in which to ask questions and make comments for public posting. Make your voice heard. You can:
- ask questions regarding proposed legislation regulations that concern you
- offer new data and scientific evidence that may not have been considered
- point out factual errors, and/or
- propose alternative solutions
You can also participate in the EPA testing process or get involved with an advocacy group on behalf of a cleaner environment with safer food, water, and air.
A Case for Women is Ready to Help with Your PFAS Case.
Since 2016 it has been our first mission to inform you of possible dangers to you or your family.
We are mothers, too. Our second mission is to help you if you already have been exposed and suffered a related health problem.
If you qualify for contingency-fee representation, we will encourage you (and even hold your hand) while we walk you through the first steps.
ACFW only partners with PFAS lawyers who work on contingency. This means you will pay nothing up front. They spend their time and resources to build and defend your case (no matter how long it takes) while charging you nothing. You only pay if you win a positive court verdict or settlement (and that payment comes out of your case result).
We charge you nothing for our services (ever) so it’s easy for you to get started. And we are still available to you throughout the process, in case you have questions or concerns you feel more comfortable discussing with us.
We want to help because it’s why we were founded. We’re here 24/7/365.
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Sources
- Michael Hawthorne, “Toxic forever chemicals are on the rise in Lake Michigan and have been detected in all of the Great Lakes,” Chicago Tribune, June 4, 2024
- Clark Mindock, “US designates PFAS chemicals as Superfund hazardous substances,” Reuters, April 19, 2024
- Unnamed, “’Forever chemicals found to rain down on all five Great Lakes,” American Chemical Society, May 16, 2024
- Austin Fast, Cecilia Garzella, and Yoonserk Pyun, “770 million Americans drink water from systems reporting PFAS to EPA. Is yours on our map?” Environmental Working Group (EWG), February 7, 2024
- Josh Ocampo, “Breaking Down New Rules About ‘Forever Chemicals,’” New York Times, April 24, 2024
WE WEAR THIS BADGE PROUDLY. Because, in a time when legal services are still dominated by men, only a Women Owned Business can bring the woman’s perspective to issues that disproportionately affect women.
We are the ones, far more than men, who are injured by sexual assault, financial scams, the gender pay gap, toxic chemicals, and the misguided practices of powerful pharmaceutical companies.
