PFAS Lawsuit Says Rugs, Carpets Nationwide Loaded with Toxic Forever Chemicals Made by 3M, Chemours Company

A new proposed class action lawsuit aims to hold 3M and other chemical makers responsible for their manufacture and sale of treatments with highly toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—PFAS—that were used in rugs, carpets and other in-home textiles for decades.

The sprawling 355-page PFAS lawsuit accuses 3M, EIDP, Inc. (formerly known as E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company) and The Chemours Company, along with non-defendant Daikin America, of distributing to carpet manufacturers PFAS-containing stain and soil repellants without disclosing their dangers.

According to the complaint, these treatments were sold since the early 1980s and applied by carpet manufacturers to virtually every carpet made in the United States before the entities stopped incorporating the forever chemicals into their carpet products in 2020.

As a result of the chemical companies’ conduct, adults and children unknowingly inhale “toxic carpet dust” rife with PFAS, while PFAS-containing rugs and carpets have “permanently damaged” countless homes and buildings, the lawsuit summarizes.

“[The defendants] never disclosed to the carpet manufacturers and retailers—let alone to consumers or anyone else—that PFAS in carpets is extremely dangerous to health, property, and the environment,” the case charges, accusing 3M, Chemours, Daikin and EIDP of collaborating to “conceal the truth” about PFAS in carpets and rugs.

As the suit tells it, carpet manufacturers learned only recently that the PFAS-containing products used to treat carpets are extremely dangerous, yet “they did not learn that from Defendants or Daikin.” Rather, third parties were tasked with educating carpet makers and retailers on the dangers of PFAS-infused products, the case says.

Further, though 3M, Chemours and Daikin have had to pay big settlements for some of the environmental harms caused by their PFAS products, little has been done to rectify the damage linked to carpeting treated with their PFAS-containing chemicals, the filing emphasizes.

“In contrast, Defendants in this action and Daikin have not paid a dime for the grievous harms caused by carpets in homes and day-care centers infused with PFAS, and none of them has offered to replace any carpets treated with PFAS-infused products,” the lawsuit scathes, adding that the goal of the plaintiffs’ proposed class action is to “remedy that injustice.”

PFAS lawsuit: “Toxic carpet dust” poses serious health risk to adults, children

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of human-made chemicals known for their strong carbon-fluorine bonds, which make them highly resistant to degradation in the environment and difficult for the human body to effectively metabolize and/or excrete, the suit explains. PFAS, once released during product manufacturing, use or disposal, ultimately exist within “a virtually closed cycle” of chronic human and ecological exposures, the complaint relays.

According to the lawsuit, carpets and rugs are “major sources of human and ecological PFAS exposures,” as the vast majority of carpets and rugs in the United States have been treated with PFAS-containing chemicals for stain-, soil-, oil- or water-resistance purposes.

Though adults unknowingly inhale carpet dust containing PFAS, young children and infants have been shown to ingest more contaminated soil and dust from carpets due to greater hand-to-mouth transfer, resulting in higher exposure to PFAS, the case states.

The lawsuit highlights that exposure to PFAS is increasingly concerning in childcare centers, as the indoor carpeted environment could serve as a significant source of exposure for infants and toddlers. A peer-reviewed study published in 2020 found “strong associations” between PFAS levels in carpet and dust pairs, suggesting that carpets can be “a source and a sink for PFAS,” the suit relays.

Exposure to PFAS, either through diet, drinking water or inhalation, can cause the chemicals to remain in the body for a long time, long enough that a person may develop significant adverse health effects, the complaint points out.

Studies indicate that some PFAS can cause reproductive and developmental, liver and kidney, and immunological effects that are harmful, as well as tumors in laboratory animals. The most consistent findings from human epidemiology studies show a small increase in serum cholesterol levels among exposed populations, with more limited findings related to infant birth weights, effects on the immune system, cancer, and thyroid hormone disruption. Some PFAS have also been linked to phytotoxicity, aquatic toxicity, and terrestrial ecotoxicity.”

Rather than tell the truth about the PFAS in their stain repellants, the defendants, over a span of years, collaborated to conceal this information, the case alleges. According to the suit, this concealment is exemplified by a 3M material safety data sheet from 1997 sent only to Old DuPont, which included a plain warning that one PFAS chemical known as PFOA can cause cancer, a determination based on 3M and Old DuPont’s own joint studies.

Rather than alert carpet manufacturers and the public to the dangers of PFOA and PFAS in general, 3M and Old DuPont suppressed this knowledge, the lawsuit alleges.

Dangers of PFAS are news for carpet makers, suit says

Though the defendants have known for decades of the dangers of PFAS, carpet manufacturers and retailers learned only recently that the products with which their carpets have been treated are harmful, the case continues. With no disclosure from 3M, Old DuPont, Chemours or Daikin, it fell to the Green Science Policy Institute to apprise carpet makers and the industry at large at a 2018 workshop of “the PFAS problem” and ways to fix it, the lawsuit says.

From there, the Green Science Policy Institute reported that several carpet manufacturers had completely phased out the use of PFAS and that Home Depot and Lowe’s stopped selling any carpets and rugs treated with the toxic substances as of January 2020.

Even then, however, the defendants and Daikin “continued to falsely claim that PFAS is not harmful,” the case shares.

PFAS settlements don’t cover toxic carpet damage, case says

The suit goes on to contend that although 3M, for instance, agreed to pay $10.3 billion to settle public water system PFAS contamination claims, and while Old DuPont, Chemours and Corteva agreed to fork over $1.19 billion to resolve similar allegations, these deals do not account for the “grievous harms” caused by the PFAS-infused carpets in homes, businesses and daycare centers across the country. The companies have also failed to offer to replace any carpets treated with PFAS products, which the suit claims account for “nearly half of all floor coverings in U.S. homes and workplaces.”

Who’s covered by the PFAS carpeting lawsuit?

The lawsuit over PFAS in carpeting aims to represent all individuals who bought carpeting and had it installed before January 1, 2020 in the United States, limited to those who still own the building in which the carpeting was installed and have not removed the product.

I have carpets containing PFAS in my house. How do I join the lawsuit?

When a new class action lawsuit is filed, there’s typically nothing you need to do to join, sign up for, or add your name to the suit. This is because it’s usually only in the event of a class action settlement that the class members covered by the lawsuit need to act. This tends to involve filling out and filing a settlement claim form online or by mail.

Keep in mind, though, that class action suits can take time to resolve, sometimes months or years, and there is no guarantee as to their success. In the meantime, you can check out Clean Water Action’s factsheet on steps you can take to avoid toxic PFAS chemicals.

Get class action lawsuit news sent to your inbox – sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter here.