Fairborn city council authorized entering into the agreement Monday.
The Tyco settlement is the third major PFAS settlement in recent years. Last summer, chemical manufacturers DuPont and 3M reached $1.2 billion and $10.5–12.5 billion agreements, respectively, to settle claims by water providers related to PFAS contamination. Fairborn also agreed to enter into a class action settlement against both 3M and DuPont, alongside Bellbrook, Dayton and more than 300 other cities.
It’s hard to predict what Fairborn’s portion of that settlement is going to be, Fairborn City Solicitor Mike McNamee said, but the process with Tyco follows the same one for the 3M and DuPont lawsuit.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are toxic, persistent, man-made substances that have been linked to a host of ailments, including cancer, pregnancy defects, liver and immune problems, Tasha Stoiber, a senior scientist at Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group previously told the Dayton Daily News. The chemicals have been found in firefighting foam, as well as consumer products labeled “non-stick,” or ‘stain-repellent.”
In April, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency set maximum enforceable levels of two PFAS chemicals — perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) — at 4.0 parts per trillion.
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