The New York attorney general on Thursday sued several chemical and manufacturing giants, including 3M and DuPont, accusing them of continuing to expose consumers to products containing chemicals linked to health problems and environmental damage, long after the companies knew of their danger.
“Big companies like 3M and DuPont knowingly sold toxic products that threatened New Yorkers’ health and polluted our environment for decades,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement on Thursday. “It’s time for them to pay for the damage they caused.”
The chemicals, called PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have been used in items like nonstick cookware, makeup, dental floss, food packaging and possibly leggings. Though the chemicals were originally hailed as revolutionary for their ability to repel water and oil, they have since been associated with an increased risk of cancer, metabolic disorders, decreased fertility in women and developmental delays in children, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Often called “forever chemicals,” PFAS do not degrade and instead accumulate in the environment, as well as the body. Nearly everyone in the United States has been exposed to PFAS and has them in their blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The chemicals have been detected in wildlife, too.
“There’s a very well-documented body of science that these chemicals cause serious health harm,” said Judith Enck, the president of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics and a former E.P.A. official. “This is a blockbuster legal action that should hold these companies accountable for the immense harm caused by their products.”
The lawsuit claims that products manufactured by 3M, DuPont, Chemours and Corteva violated New Yorkers’ rights to clean air and water, as well as consumer protection laws. The companies also engaged in persistent fraud, the lawsuit claimed, by failing to warn New Yorkers of the health and environmental risks of their products.
“3M was aware of and repeatedly acknowledged internally the substantial risks posed by PFAS as early as the 1960s,” the lawsuit states, citing a 1963 report that described some of the chemicals as “completely resistant to biological attack.” By 1976, the lawsuit says, 3M had confirmed the presence of PFAS in the blood of its employees, as well as in blood samples from the general public.
The company that would become DuPont knew as early as 1961 that a type of PFAS was toxic, according to the lawsuit. And, like 3M, it learned that PFAS were detected in blood samples of its workers. The company confirmed that “continued exposure is not tolerable.” However, it did not disclose any of its findings to the public, the lawsuit states.
It was not until the early 2000s, when a court order forced DuPont to release thousands of internal documents, that the harm from PFAS was broadly exposed to the public.
The companies named in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to a request for comment. They have faced thousands of other lawsuits over PFAS contamination. In 2023, for example, 3M reached a $10.3 billion settlement, to be paid over 13 years, with U.S. cities and towns over their claims that the company had contaminated drinking water with PFAS.
The lawsuit asks the companies to fund cleanup efforts throughout New York, and orders them to warn consumers about the risks of their products. The lawsuit also seeks damages for harms to the state and its population, restitution and other financial penalties.
The lawsuit is the first by New York concerning forever chemicals in consumer products. (The state previously sued many of the same companies over cleanup costs related to PFAS in firefighting foam.) But towns and counties have been embroiled in such battles for years.
This summer, DuPont is expected to pay $27 million to residents of Hoosick Falls, a village in upstate New York. The payout will finalize a 2021 settlement between thousands of residents and a group of chemical companies that also included Saint-Gobain, Honeywell and 3M.
The state lawsuit also comes after a recent decision by the Trump administration to roll back some of the limits on PFAS in drinking water, which were established in 2024 under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. And last week, the E.P.A. approved several pesticides that could contain forever chemicals, according to some experts.
