[CPEO-MEF] PFAS: "Pentagon tries to dodge PFAS lawsuits over a product it helped invent"

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

Pentagon tries to dodge PFAS lawsuits over a product it helped invent
The U.S. government is seeking immunity from 27 lawsuits related to a toxic firefighting foam used on military bases.

By Zoya Teirstein
Grist
March 12, 2024

The United States government said it is immune to 27 lawsuits filed by local and state governments, businesses, and property owners over the military’s role in contaminating the country with deadly PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals.” The lawsuits are a small fraction of the thousands of cases brought by plaintiffs all over the country against a slew of entities that manufactured, sold, and used a product called aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF — an ultra-effective fire suppressant that leached into drinking water supplies and soil across the U.S. over the course of decades.

The Department of Justice asked a U.S. district judge in South Carolina to dismiss the lawsuits last month, arguing that the government can’t be held liable for PFAS contamination. Lawyers for the plaintiffs called the move “misguided” and said that dismissing the lawsuits would extend an ongoing environmental catastrophe the Pentagon helped create. 


…

For the entire article, see
https://grist.org/health/pentagon-tries-to-dodge-pfas-lawsuits-over-a-product-it-helped-invent/

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)




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