3M will pay up to $7.35bn to settle most 'forever chemicals' injury claims

For years, firefighters sprayed foam on fires, and families in some towns drank water polluted with chemicals they had never heard of. Many of them later went to court, saying those chemicals made them ill. On Tuesday, 3M, the company behind Post-it notes and Scotch tape, agreed to pay up to US$7.35 billion to settle almost all of those claims.

The 3M PFAS settlement covers about 99% of current personal-injury claims in the US and about 115,000 to 120,000 eligible people, according to 3M. It is a big step in the long forever chemicals lawsuit fight in the US. It also comes with a clear line from 3M: “This agreement is not an admission of liability.”

What forever chemicals are, in plain words

PFAS are a large family of man-made chemicals. They have been used around the world in non-stick pans, rain jackets, food packaging and firefighting foam. They break down very slowly. That is why people call them forever chemicals: they can stay in water and in our bodies for years.

Reuters reports that PFAS have been linked to liver damage, lower birth weight, a weaker response to vaccines, and kidney and testicular cancer. Much of this case is about one product: AFFF, short for aqueous film-forming foam, a firefighting foam that contained PFAS.

How the 3M PFAS settlement is paid over nine years

This is what 3M and the plaintiffs’ lawyers have said.

• Up to US$7.35 billion over nine years, through 2034. The company values it at US$5.8 billion today and will book a charge of that size in late 2026.
• Slow start, heavy finish. The company says it will pay US$50 million in 2026, nothing in 2027, and about 20% in the final two years, to fit around its other legacy settlement payments.
• Six “eligible injuries”, including kidney and testicular cancer, according to the plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel.
• A reserve for future claims of US$680 million, inside the total.
• One court. The cases sit before Judge Richard Gergel in a federal court in South Carolina, in a combined case called MDL 2873.

William Brown, 3M’s chairman and CEO, called the deal “a significant milestone” that “substantially reduces litigation uncertainty”. It follows a US$10.3 billion settlement with US public water systems in 2023.

The payout per person is still unknown

The biggest question for families is simple: how big will each PFAS lawsuit settlement payout be? That has not been made public. Neither 3M nor the lawyers gave claim deadlines or the steps to join in the announcements we read.

The deal also depends on people taking part. If the agreed terms are not met, the company says it will keep defending itself in court. With most of the money arriving late, some people may wait years.

Nor is 3M the only defendant. Reuters notes that DuPont, Corteva and Chemours also face PFAS lawsuits. Michael London, a co-lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, called 3M “the first defendant of many to come to the table”.

Think you may qualify? Go through the lawyers, not ‘claim’ sites

If you or a relative worked with firefighting foam or drank polluted water and later fell ill, speak first to a lawyer working in this case. Be careful with websites promising a “claim portal” or a payout date. The official announcements do not explain how to claim, so do not give personal details to a site you cannot trace back to the court or the lawyers.

This deal is about US injury claims. Readers elsewhere, including in Australia, where people are searching for news of a 3M firefighting foam lawsuit, should not assume it applies to them. PFAS also remain in the environment worldwide.

On balance, real relief, paid slowly

There is genuine good in this. Well over 100,000 people who say they were harmed now have a likely path to payment, without more years in court. The company also says it stopped making all PFAS by the end of 2025 and is still cleaning up its former sites.

The concerns are real too. No wrongdoing is admitted, many payments are years away, and the covered illnesses include cancers. In our reading, the payment schedule is built around 3M’s other bills more than around people who need help now.

On balance, this looks like a fair step forward rather than full closure. It also fits a wider pattern, in our view: as with the NAACP’s clean-air case over xAI’s turbines, courts are where communities test what companies owe for pollution.

For anyone waiting on an AFFF lawsuit update, the next tests are the court order on how future cases will work, and how many eligible people sign up. The chemicals will outlast the settlement. The question is whether help reaches people while they still need it.