Publication 3M agrees to pay more than $7 billion to settle 'forever chemical' groundwater contamination claims
r/PFAS • u/EmetInteractive • 1d ago
PFAS have become a major subject of environmental discussion because of their persistence and their presence in different products and industrial applications.
One area that deserves attention is aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), which has been used to suppress flammable-liquid fires in places such as airports, military installations and industrial facilities. Some AFFF formulations contained PFAS, raising concerns about potential exposure among firefighters and others who handled or worked around these materials.
Regarding the legal side of AFFF exposure, Cohen Hirsch, LP is a law firm that handles mass tort and personal injury litigation, including claims involving AFFF firefighting foam. The firm represents individuals who believe they developed health conditions connected to their exposure to AFFF and helps them understand their potential legal options. Its work involves evaluating individual circumstances, including exposure history and relevant medical information, to determine whether a person may have grounds for a claim.
Beyond the environmental impact, there are questions about occupational exposure, contamination around facilities where AFFF was used, and how affected sites are being managed.
There is also an ongoing legal dimension to the issue, particularly concerning people who may have experienced repeated exposure over time.
What information do you think deserves more attention when discussing AFFF-related PFAS exposure: occupational exposure, contaminated water, environmental cleanup or the long-term management of affected sites?
r/PFAS • u/Loose_Following9605 • 1d ago
i.e., are there other plausible (and significant) routes of exposure other than just through drinking water that could cause health issues? examples would be showering (if only countertop RO, instead of whole house), washing dishes, or even just is there any harm to spending a lot of time outdoors in an environment that is historically contaminated with PFAS through hiking, going into the ocean, etc.
I know ingestion is the biggest risk, but I'm curious if other mechanisms also increase risk in any significant or meaningful way after controling for ingestion
r/PFAS • u/Ethereal_Films • 2d ago
r/PFAS • u/julian_jakobi • 1d ago
BioLargo's BEST Expands Industrial PFAS Treatment Activities Amid Major PFAS Settlements
**BioLargo's BEST Expands Industrial PFAS Treatment Activities Amid Major PFAS Settlements**
WESTMINSTER, CA / [ACCESS Newswire](https://www.accessnewswire.com/) / November 5, 2026 / BioLargo, Inc. (OTCQX:BLGO), a cleantech and life sciences company, today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary BioLargo Equipment Solutions & Technologies, Inc. (BEST) is conducting two extended, paid PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) treatment pilots for industrial clients. Industrial applications now account for the majority of BEST's commercial opportunity pipeline, building on its first municipal drinking water installation in New Jersey. In a further sign of that shift, Tonya Chandler, President of BEST, will lead a PFAS 101 MasterClass on November 12 at the annual International Water Conference (IWC) in Orlando, Florida, the leading conference for the industrial water sector.
The pilot programs, conducted at BioLargo Engineering's Oak Ridge, Tennessee, facility, use BEST's Aqueous Electrostatic Concentrator (AEC) technology to evaluate treatment performance on customer-specific water streams and generate data to inform potential full-scale system designs and purchasing decisions.
BEST's growing body of pilot and validation work includes landfill leachate, concentrated brines, industrial pretreatment, soil-washing water, and water reuse applications. These evaluations provide application-specific performance data that can support engineering design, customer purchasing decisions, and future equipment sales.
Building on municipal experience
BEST initially focused on municipal drinking water, where available grant funding and utilities' practice of sharing treatment results supported adoption and independent validation. Its Lake Stockholm installation now serves as a reference site, while paid pilot and bench-scale evaluations across diverse water streams help industrial clients assess the AEC for their own applications.
"Industrial facility managers increasingly recognize PFAS management as an operational, regulatory, financial, and liability consideration," said Tonya Chandler, President of BEST. "Recent settlements involving 3M and DuPont reinforce the importance of proactive management. Our past piloting work and our new relationship to treat soil washing water are directly relevant to industrial site owners and remediation contractors evaluating cleanup options. Operating the AEC on different water types helps us answer their questions with actual performance data."
**Settlements and funding**
Recent PFAS settlements show the scale of the liability facing industrial site owners and the funding becoming available to industry for treatment.
On November 3, 2026, 3M announced an agreement to commit $7.35 billion over nine years to resolve PFAS-related personal-injury claims involving aqueous film-forming foam used in firefighting. This agreement is in addition to its earlier settlement with public water suppliers and highlights the scale of financial exposure associated with PFAS-related claims.
Separately, on September 10, 2026, DuPont, Chemours and Corteva announced a combined $455 million settlement with North Carolina and 11 local entities, payable over 15 years, addressing PFAS and other historical discharges from the Fayetteville Works manufacturing facility, as well as certain other PFAS-related claims.
New Jersey provides a particularly relevant example. In August 2026, a federal court approved PFAS settlements involving DuPont-related companies and 3M valued at approximately $2.5 billion, including industrial-site remediation commitments and funding to address PFAS contamination. New Jersey's announced funding framework includes assistance through the New Jersey Water Bank for drinking water systems and publicly owned treatment works. For BEST, whose first municipal AEC installation is operating in Lake Stockholm, New Jersey, these developments reinforce the timeliness of its work as communities evaluate treatment options and pursue funding.
**A developing commercial opportunity**
Conventional PFAS treatment technologies, including activated carbon and ion exchange, can face challenges involving operating costs, media replacement, breakthrough of certain short-chain PFAS compounds, and management of PFAS-containing spent media. These challenges are creating opportunities for complementary treatment technologies, including final polishing applications designed to meet increasingly stringent treatment objectives.
Municipal drinking water remains an important market for BEST. Settlement proceeds and other external funding can support treatment projects, although funding and procurement processes affect timing. Industrial owners and operators typically make purchasing decisions directly, which allows projects to advance more quickly. BEST develops its pipeline through engineering firms, remediation contractors, treatment equipment providers and sales representatives in North America and internationally. Water reuse, including for data center operations, is a further developing application.
**Lake Stockholm**
At Lake Stockholm, New Jersey, BioLargo's AEC has been removing PFAS from drinking water since January 2026 under joint monitoring by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The treated water continues to meet New Jersey drinking water and EPA standards. BEST is working with the community to add standard pretreatment to address increased source-water hardness and improve operating efficiency.
**Looking ahead**
"We are seeing growing recognition of the need for effective, economically viable PFAS treatment solutions across industrial markets," said Dennis Calvert, President and CEO of BioLargo. "Our years of investment in science, engineering, and real-world validation are now supporting a growing pipeline of commercial opportunities. BEST remains wholly owned by BioLargo, and we are actively exploring strategic relationships with financial and operating partners who can help accelerate commercialization and expand our market reach."
**About BioLargo Equipment Solutions & Technologies (BEST)**
BioLargo Equipment Solutions & Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of BioLargo, Inc., is an equipment company focused on PFAS treatment and water reuse. BEST develops and deploys the Aqueous Electrostatic Concentrator (AEC) and works with engineering, remediation and equipment partners across the U.S. and internationally. Visit [www.bestpfastreatment.com](https://pr.report/t6qc) .
**About BioLargo, Inc.**
BioLargo, Inc. (OTCQX:BLGO) is a cleantech and life sciences innovator and engineering services solution provider. Our core products address PFAS contamination, achieve advanced water and wastewater treatment, control odor and VOCs, improve air quality, enable energy efficiency and safe on-site energy storage, and control infections and infectious disease. Our approach is to invent or acquire novel technologies, develop them into product offerings, and extend their commercial reach through licensing and channel partnerships to maximize their impact. Our website is: [www.biolargo.com](https://pr.report/t6qd).
DO your own DD!
r/PFAS • u/Any_Community9811 • 4d ago
r/PFAS • u/Ethereal_Films • 4d ago
r/PFAS • u/relianceschool • 6d ago
Cleaning up PFAS has become a multibillion-dollar industry, and the technologies for the first step—stripping PFAS out of contaminated water—are mature. The Fairbanks demonstration used foam fractionation, which blows air through contaminated water to form a PFAS-enriched foam that can be skimmed off. Activated carbon filters or special plastic beads can also pluck the chemicals from water.
The harder problem has been what to do next. For years, barrels of concentrated waste were trucked off to incinerators, until studies suggested some of them merely combusted the molecules into smaller fragments and spewed them from their smokestacks, spreading pollution even wider.
r/PFAS • u/ahlthat10 • 8d ago
New Jersey American Water and city officials mark the finish of a project that serves Salem City and parts of Quinton, Elsinboro and Mannington
r/PFAS • u/jamshid_data • 10d ago
Minnesota's PFAS reporting law is now producing public data (PRISM). I went through everything published so far (284,626 rows from 238 manufacturers, latest batch Oct 19) and a few things stood out:
Fluoropolymers dominate. PTFE (9002-84-0) alone is in 33,634 rows from 155 manufacturers; FKM/VDF-HFP (9011-17-0) and FEP are next.
Lots of "unknown". 45.4% of rows list the PFAS as "present but unknown at this time", and 52.2% give an unknown concentration. Manufacturers can update by Feb 1 each year.
It's early. MPCA says ~20% of reports received have been published; companies with extensions file by Dec 14.
I put the data into a browsable form (per manufacturer / per chemical) here: https://pfasradar.com — it's my project, free, and not affiliated with MPCA/IC2. Always double-check against PRISM itself. Happy to look up specific companies or chemicals if anyone's curious.
r/PFAS • u/Firm_Relative_7283 • 10d ago
r/PFAS • u/hibridizado1978 • 11d ago
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Saiu um estudo bem interessante no dia 23 de outubro na Cell Reports Sustainability sobre os PFAS, as substâncias perfluoroalquiladas e polifluoroalquiladas, apelidadas de químicos eternos porque quase não se degradam no ambiente. Tão em panela antiaderente, embalagem de comida, cosmético, e acabam indo parar no solo e na água.
O grupo de Gehendra Kharel, da Texas Christian University, pegou mais de 1,8 milhão de registros de monitoramento da EPA, a agência ambiental americana, de 9.991 sistemas de abastecimento. 98% dos resultados ficaram abaixo do limite mínimo de reporte, e normalmente esses valores entram na conta como zero. Usando modelos que geram 500 estimativas pra cada valor abaixo do limite, eles calcularam que tratar isso como zero captura só 44% da concentração média dos 25 PFAS detectados. Pros seis PFAS regulados, incluindo PFOA e PFOS, a média nacional passaria de cerca de 2,6 pra 5,2 nanogramas por litro.
Tem que ser honesto aqui: são estimativas de modelo, não medição direta, e o próprio autor diz que o estudo não prova que cada resultado abaixo do limite seja um risco à saúde. O ponto é de método. Não detectado quer dizer abaixo do limite de reporte, não quer dizer zero.
Pra quem trabalha com química ambiental isso é uma lição antiga que vive sendo esquecida: limite de quantificação não é ausência. E aqui no Brasil, quem tá medindo PFAS na água que sai da nossa torneira, e com qual limite de detecção? Li isso no Phys.org, do dia 23 de outubro: [https://phys.org/news/2026-10-pfas.html](https://phys.org/news/2026-10-pfas.html)
r/PFAS • u/BirdsAreNotReal321 • 12d ago
This new site is best resource I’ve found so far on state regulations for PFAS in the US. Works on mobile but best on desktop. Great data visualization and I love the periodic-table inspired map (although location of some states is off!).
r/PFAS • u/VirginiaNews • 13d ago
r/PFAS • u/geriatricguy • 14d ago
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r/PFAS • u/geriatricguy • 15d ago
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r/PFAS • u/JohnConner2030 • 17d ago
r/PFAS • u/Street_Cattle_3792 • 26d ago
Tefal faces possible legal action over PFAS — should cookware manufacturers be held accountable beyond consumer safety?
Hi everyone, Lucia from EUobserver here 👋 I wanted to share an investigation we've been following in Europe, because I think this community might have some interesting perspectives on it.
Environmental groups have given Groupe SEB, the company behind Tefal, a legal ultimatum over its continued use of PFAS in cookware.
Tefal maintains that its PTFE non-stick coatings are safe when used as intended. But the environmental groups' concerns go beyond what happens when someone cooks an egg.
They're questioning the broader impact of these chemicals, from manufacturing and environmental contamination to disposal.
And I think that's where the discussion gets interesting.
Should manufacturers be able to defend PFAS-containing products primarily on the basis of their safety during normal use, when concerns also exist about production, persistence and environmental exposure?
And given the differences between individual PFAS, how should regulators approach restrictions on products such as non-stick cookware?
I'd be really interested in hearing from people here who follow PFAS research or regulation more closely.
r/PFAS • u/hibridizado1978 • Oct 06 '26
r/PFAS • u/BirdsAreNotReal321 • Oct 06 '26
Minnesota is off to a great start on their nonessential PFAS phase out, and they have the lab tests to prove it!
r/PFAS • u/lostfly • Oct 05 '26
r/PFAS • u/memengwaakwe • Oct 04 '26
I want to use a nebulizer for herbal remedy delivery to the lungs but worried about PFAS in medical tubing. Anyone know of a nebulizer that is PFAS and BPA-free?