For more than a century, 3M introduced thousands of products ranging from water-resistant sandpaper to Scotch tape. Today, the company’s business also includes contending with tens of billions of dollars in potential liability costs, the Wall Street Journal reported. 3M is contesting thousands of lawsuits alleging that long-lasting chemicals known as PFAS developed by the company decades ago have contaminated soil and drinking water and contributed to illnesses. The company also is a defendant in what has become the largest civil injury case in U.S. history, with about 250,000 veterans alleging that 3M’s foam earplugs failed to protect them from service-related hearing loss. 3M is in talks to settle the earplugs case, as well as a major part of the PFAS litigation dealing with contamination of municipal drinking water from firefighting foam produced by the company. Fighting the cases at trials would take years. Settling the litigation will come with a steep price tag that would potentially reshape the company. (Subscription required.)
