Updates & timeline for PFAS exposure

Thank you for your continued trust in ELG to represent you in the AFFF/PFAS litigation. Our lawyers and staff continue to work hard to protect your rights and obtain the compensation you deserve.

In the near future you will receive communications from our office regarding Product Identification for AFFF and/or Turnout Gear you may have used in your career. It is an important part of the litigation that helps all similarly situated firefighters. It also helps identify which AFFF products may have contaminated your local water supply. Please respond to these communications when available.

Also, leadership is negotiating a Plaintiff Fact Sheet specific to Turnout Gear. As you are aware, PFAS was present in both the AFFF and turnout gear that you used. When finalized by leadership and available to clients this supplemental fact sheet will be mandatory, so please work with our representatives to complete it as quickly as possible.

The AFFF MDL continues to move forward and numerous personal injury cases are being prepared for initial bellwether trials, likely in early 2025. Additionally, another water provider case is being readied for trial against an AFFF manufacturer that has not yet settled the litigation.

It will be a busy year in the AFFF litigation, and we are grateful for the opportunity to assist you. If you have any questions, please contact ELG at 205.328.9200.

According to new research funded by the U.S. government, women exposed to PFAS appear to face a higher risk of ovarian and other types of cancers, including a doubling of odds for melanoma. PFAS may disrupt hormone functions specific to women, which is a potential mechanism for increasing their likelihood of developing hormone-driven cancers, the researchers determined. Hormonally active cancers are difficult to cure, making deeper inquiry into potential environmental causes essential. Researchers also found a link between PFNA exposure and uterine cancer.

According to a Mount Sinai report, Asian Americans have significantly higher exposure to PFAS than other ethnic or racial groups. The median exposure score for this racial group was 88% higher than for non-Hispanic whites, the researchers found. Asian Americans likely have much higher levels of PFAS in their blood than other U.S. races and ethnicities. The study factored sociodemographic, dietary, and behavioral characteristics into its algorithm, which makes it more sensitive to exposure differences among cultures than the standard methods used by the U.S. government and most of the scientific community.

Scientists collected tap water samples from 716 locations representing a range of low, medium, and high human-impacted areas. While the low category includes protected lands and the medium one includes residential and rural areas with no known PFAS sources, the high category includes urban areas and locations with reported PFAS sources, such as industry or waste sites. Most of the exposure was observed near urban areas and potential PFAS sources, such as the Great Plains, Eastern Seaboard, Great Lakes, and Central and Southern California regions. The study's results are in line with previous research, concluding that residents in urban areas have a greater likelihood of PFAS exposure. Scientists estimate that the probability of PFAS not being observed in tap water is about 75% in rural areas and around 25% in urban areas. 

A new paper from the Annals of Global Health examines documents from DuPont and 3M, the largest manufacturers of PFAS, and analyzes the tactics the industry used to delay public awareness of PFAS toxicity and, in turn, delay regulations governing their use. The secret industry documents were discovered in a lawsuit filed by attorney Robert Bilott, who was the first to successfully sue DuPont for PFAS contamination. Little was publicly known about the toxicity of PFAS for the first 50 years of their use, the authors stated in the paper. "DuPont had evidence of PFAS toxicity from internal animal and occupational studies that they did not publish in the scientific literature and failed to report their findings to EPA as required under TSCA. These documents were all marked as 'confidential,' and in some cases, industry executives are explicit that they 'wanted this memo destroyed,'" states the paper.

People living in communities with higher proportions of Black and Hispanic or Latino residents are more likely to be exposed to dangerous PFAS levels in their water supplies than those living in other communities, according to a study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The researchers connect this finding to the disproportionate siting of sources of PFAS pollution, such as manufacturers, airports, wastewater treatment plants, military bases, and landfills near watersheds serving these communities. "Our work suggests that the sociodemographic groups that are often stressed by other factors, including marginalization, racism, and poverty, are also more highly exposed to PFAS in drinking water," said first author Jahred Liddie, a Ph.D. student in population health sciences at Harvard Chan School.

Between 2016 and 2022, the EPA worked off an advisory health limit of 70 ppt for PFOS and PFOA. However, the agency set a new legal limit of 4 ppt for these highly toxic chemicals in drinking water, which science shows are still dangerous to consume. Last year, after science showed that no level of exposure to PFAS from drinking water is safe, the EPA set non-enforceable "advisory health limits" of 0.02 ppt for PFOA and 0.004 ppt for PFOS. Public health advocates believe that the discrepancy is likely the consequence of industry pressure on the EPA and a lack of ability of PFAS tests that regulators use to check water for the chemicals at levels as low as 0.02 ppt.