The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has dismissed a lawsuit against companies, including 3M and DuPont, on the basis that the plaintiff, Kevin Hardwick, lacked standing. Hardwick, who had been a firefighter for over 40 years, claimed that these organizations were responsible for the existence of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in his bloodstream, which he alleges came from firefighting foams containing these chemicals. The November 27 opinion shed more light on this matter.
However, it was determined that his allegation was not sufficient to infer plausibly that the named defendants bear responsibility for the PFAS in his blood. Drawing attention to the diverse nature of PFAS, one of the defendant’s experts reported that between 5,000 and 10,000 different compounds fall under this category, which is approximately equivalent to the number of known species of mammals on Earth.
“To allege simply that these defendants manufactured or otherwise distributed ‘PFAS,’ therefore, is patently insufficient to support a plausible inference that any of them bear responsibility for the particular PFAS in Hardwick’s blood,” noted U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Raymond M. Kethledge for the Sixth Circuit.
For more details, refer to the original report.