The Australian government said on Thursday that it was suing 3M for more than $1.4 billion in damages, alleging that the American industrial conglomerate had concealed information about the harmful effects of “forever chemicals” used at more than two dozen military sites across the country.
The lawsuit is the largest ever brought by the Australian government, Michelle Rowland, the country’s attorney general, told reporters in Canberra, the capital.
“This is a government that is prepared to take on one of the biggest multinational corporations in the world,” Ms. Rowland said.
The case is the latest in a wave of legal actions against the Minnesota-based company over contamination linked to PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. In 2024, 3M agreed to pay $10.3 billion over a decade to public water suppliers in the United States. State and local governments, including those in Minnesota, Alabama and New Jersey, have also sued the company and received settlements.
The so-called forever chemicals — which are called that because they do not break down naturally — have been linked to liver damage, developmental problems, reduced immune function and cancer. They became ubiquitous, used in everything from clothing to the nonstick coating for frying pans to firefighting foam.
That foam was widely used at military bases around the world, both to extinguish fuel fires and during emergency-response training exercises. The U.S. Defense Department has identified 723 installations where PFAS may have been used or released, and Congress has since approved hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for cleanup efforts.
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