3M Knew for 50 Years: The Documents Say So
3 billion settlement with US water utilities in 2023 over PFAS contamination, but Australian authorities are pursuing their own independent action.
3M Knew for 50 Years: The Documents Say So
Australia's federal government has filed court documents in Australian courts alleging that 3M possessed internal warnings about the toxicity of its own products for more than five decades — and said nothing. The filings, reported exclusively by The Guardian, claim the company's own records included evidence that its products could harm humans, raising questions about what executives knew, when they knew it, and what calculations they made about the cost of disclosure versus the cost of silence.
The products at the centre of the case are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — PFAS — a class of synthetic chemicals used in everything from firefighting foam to non-stick cookware. Australia joins a growing list of governments and municipalities pursuing 3M over contamination that has been found in water supplies, soil, and human bloodstreams across multiple continents.
3M reached a landmark $10.3 billion settlement with US water utilities in 2023 over PFAS contamination, but Australian authorities are pursuing their own independent action. The Canberra government argues that internal company documents dating back decades contradict the public position 3M maintained for years, according to court filings cited by The Guardian.
The case will be watched closely across Europe, where PFAS regulation has tightened significantly and similar litigation is advancing in several jurisdictions. For Malta, where industrial chemical exposure standards are governed by EU frameworks, the Australian proceedings add evidentiary weight to arguments that regulatory bodies across the bloc have been working from an incomplete picture of known risks.
*Source: The Guardian*
