Updates & timeline for PFAS exposure

Thank you for your continued patience as we move forward on your AFFF/PFAS litigation. The purpose of this communication is to provide an April update to keep you informed of our progress. Although not much has changed since the last update letter sent out in February, we wanted to reassure you that ELG will continue to work diligently to move your case forward as part of our role on the Plaintiffs Executive Committee.

We will do our very best to always keep you informed as new information arises. We would like to stress that you will be targeted by social media advertising, emails from marketing firms and commercials on television which may try to convince you to hire another law firm to represent you on AFFF litigation - please do not contact these misleading ads and communications. Your case is being handled effectively and efficiently as possible and you will always have the option to speak with an attorney here at ELG should you have any concerns.

While we do not have any new information to add to last month's update, we assure you that the following information is still ongoing:

Plaintiffs' leadership in the Multidistrict Litigation is actively working on specific personal injury cases for the initial bellwether trials. These lead trials are meant to serve as an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the cases for both plaintiffs and defendants. Often, the bellwether process is used to align parties for potential resolution of all similar cases. The initial bellwether trial is currently set for October 2025.

We can report that settlement negotiations with most defendants remain ongoing and have been positive in recent months. We are hopeful that a resolution on a broad scale is possible. However, if the defendants are not willing to resolve the litigation, we remain fully prepared to fully prosecute your case.

The Court has recently entered additional case management orders that will require additional work from the personal injury plaintiffs such as yourself. If your lawsuit was previously filed, you will be required to complete a Plaintiff Profile Form soon. The Court has instituted the Plaintiff Profile Form procedure to get an accurate count of the number of outstanding personal injury lawsuits. Much of the information was previously provided, and our office will work with the Court appointed vendor to complete as much as possible. This process will be through an electronic portal that individual plaintiffs can access. Our office is currently processing these documents, and we anticipate you will receive an email in the coming weeks asking you to verify the submitted information. Please be on the lookout for additional information regarding the Plaintiff Profile Form.

Additionally, the Court has taken an interest in ensuring that EVERY filed personal injury lawsuit is supported by medical records confirming the diagnosis. For some of our clients, we have been unable to secure access to your specific records despite the best efforts. It may be necessary for you to assist us in obtaining supporting medical records. Often an individual has an easier process to obtain their medical records than a law firm.

If your lawsuit was previously dismissed, or if you do not have one of the current qualifying injuries, ELG continues to represent you and take steps to secure recovery on your behalf. We understand this is a frustrating process but rest assured that your legal team continues to explore potential recovery while we hold your case in our firm inventory.

As always, it remains extremely important that you quickly respond to requests for information from our office. The defendants have recently become more aggressive in attempting to dismiss lawsuits that have not completed the required discovery documents. If you fail to respond to requests for information and do not execute the required documents, your case will be dismissed from litigation, and you risk not being able to recover for your injuries.

Our legal team remains grateful for the opportunity to continue our representation of you, and we look forward to assisting you as we move forward together.

Plaintiffs' leadership in the Multidistrict Litigation is actively working on specific personal injury cases for the initial bellwether trials. These lead trials are meant to serve as an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the cases for both plaintiffs and defendants. Often, the bellwether process is used to align parties for potential resolution of all similar cases. The initial bellwether trial is currently set for October 2025.

We can report that settlement negotiations with most defendants remain ongoing and have been positive in recent months. We are hopeful that a resolution on a broad scale is possible. However, if the defendants are not willing to resolve the litigation, we remain fully prepared to fully prosecute your case.

The Court has recently entered additional case management orders that will require additional work from the personal injury plaintiffs such as yourself. If your lawsuit was previously filed, you will be required to complete a Plaintiff Profile Form soon. The Court has instituted the Plaintiff Profile Form procedure to get an accurate count of the number of outstanding personal injury lawsuits. Much of the information was previously provided, and our office will work with the Court appointed vendor to complete as much as possible. This process will be through an electronic portal that individual plaintiffs can access. Our office is currently processing these documents, and we anticipate you will receive an email in coming weeks asking you to verify the submitted information. Please be on the lookout for additional information regarding the Plaintiff Profile Form.

Additionally, the Court has taken an interest in ensuring that EVERY filed personal injury lawsuit is supported by medical records confirming the diagnosis. For some of our clients, we have been unable to secure access to your specific records despite the best efforts. It may be necessary for you to assist us in obtaining supporting medical records. Often an individual has an easier process to obtain their medical records than a law firm.

If your lawsuit was previously dismissed, or if you do not have one of the current qualifying injuries, ELG continues to represent you and take steps to secure recovery on your behalf. We understand this is a frustrating process but rest assured that your legal team continues to explore potential recovery while we hold your case in our firm inventory.

As always, it remains extremely important that you quickly respond to requests for information from our office. The defendants have recently become more aggressive in attempting to dismiss lawsuits that have not completed the required discovery documents. If you fail to respond to requests for information and do not execute the required documents, your case will be dismissed from litigation, and you risk not being able to recover for your injuries.

Our legal team remains grateful for the opportunity to continue our representation of you, and we look forward to assisting you as we move forward together.

We hope this finds you well as you prepare to celebrate the holiday season. Your attorneys at ELG wanted to provide a year-end update on your AFFF/PFAS litigation.

Plaintiffs' leadership in the Multidistrict Litigation is actively working on specific personal injury cases for the initial bellwether trials. These lead trials are meant to serve as an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the cases for both plaintiff and defendants. Often, the bellwether process is used to align the parties for potential resolution of all similar cases. The initial bellwether trial is currently set for October 2025.

We can report that settlement negotiations with most defendants remain ongoing and have been positive in recent months. We are hopeful that resolution on a broad scale is possible. However, if the defendants are not willing to resolve the litigation, we remain fully prepared to prosecute your case to the fullest extent.

The Court has recently entered additional case management orders that will require additional work from the personal injury plaintiffs such as yourself. If your lawsuit was previously filed, you will be required to complete a Plaintiff Profile Form in the near future. The Court has instituted the Plaintiff Profile Form procedure to get an accurate count of the number of outstanding personal injury lawsuits. Much of the information was previously provided, and our office will work with the Court appointed vendor to complete as much as possible. This process will likely be done through an electronic portal that individual plaintiffs can access. We expect to receive additional information from the Court in coming week. Please be on the lookout for additional information regarding the Plaintiff Profile Form in early 2025.

Additionally, the Court has taken an interest in ensuring that EVERY filed personal injury lawsuit is supported by medical records confirming the diagnosis. For some of our clients, we have been unable to secure access to your specific records despite best efforts. It may be necessary for you to assist us in obtaining supporting medical records. Often an individual has an easier process to obtain their medical records than a law firm.

If your lawsuit was previously dismissed, or if you do not have one of the current qualifying injuries, ELG continues to represent you and take steps to secure recovery on your behalf. We understand this is a frustrating process, but rest assured that your legal team continues to explore potential recovery while we hold your case in our firm inventory.

It remains extremely important that you quickly respond to requests for information from our office. The defendants have recently become more aggressive in attempting to dismiss lawsuits that have not completed the required discovery documents. If you fail to respond to requests for information and do not execute the required documents, your case will be dismissed from the litigation and you risk not being able to recover for your injuries.

Please note that our office historically closes for the Christmas and New Year's break. Our office will be closed beginning December 20^th and will not reopen until 2025. Please be patient as our team takes some much needed rest to refresh for an exciting 2025. We will return all calls and emails as quickly as possible when we return.

The AFFF multidistrict litigation (MDL) continues to progress through the federal court system. As you may recall, this litigation involves claims against manufacturers of AFFF and related chemicals, particularly PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), which have been linked to various health concerns and environmental contamination.

Numerous defendants have settled the litigation brought by water providers nationwide. Several defendants still remain in the water provider litigation, and the Court has set an initial bellwether trial schedule.

The Court has also turned its attention to the personal injury litigation, which includes your case. The personal injury litigation alleges development of certain diseases from exposure to AFFF and turnout gear during work as a firefighter. Also, many personal injury cases allege exposure to PFAS chemicals through drinking water contaminated by AFFF use.

Initial discovery is ongoing in the personal injury bellwether process. It is very likely that a trial date will be set in 2025 for the first round of personal injury cases. We will continue to update you on this process as more information becomes available. It is possible that some defendants settle all personal injury lawsuits prior to this bellwether setting.

Your attorneys at ELG continue to be on the front lines of working towards obtaining compensation for firefighters occupationally exposed to AFFF and turnout gear. Discovery is ongoing with the turnout gear defendants, and we believe the firefighter personal injury cases will being moving forward in the near future.

Our office continues to send e-mails requesting our clients complete a short questionnaire regarding the type of AFFF used by our firefighter clients during their career. This is extremely important so that plaintiffs can identify which AFFF defendant's foam was used at different locations nationwide. If you have not yet done so, please complete this online questionnaire as soon as possible.

If we have contacted you regarding completing the Plaintiff Fact Sheet and Turnout Gear Specific Fact Sheet, please work with our representatives to complete this in a timely manner. These are Court ordered discovery documents, and failure to complete them could mean your case will be dismissed.

We continue to work diligently to represent your interests and pursue just compensation for the damages you've experienced. It is important to remember that complex litigation like this can take considerable time to resolve. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate this process.

Thank you for your continued trust in ELG to represent you in the AFFF/PFAS litigation. Our lawyers and staff continue to work hard to protect your rights and obtain the compensation you deserve.

In the near future you will receive communications from our office regarding Product Identification for AFFF and/or Turnout Gear you may have used in your career. It is an important part of the litigation that helps all similarly situated firefighters. It also helps identify which AFFF products may have contaminated your local water supply. Please respond to these communications when available.

Also, leadership is negotiating a Plaintiff Fact Sheet specific to Turnout Gear. As you are aware, PFAS was present in both the AFFF and turnout gear that you used. When finalized by leadership and available to clients this supplemental fact sheet will be mandatory, so please work with our representatives to complete it as quickly as possible.

The AFFF MDL continues to move forward and numerous personal injury cases are being prepared for initial bellwether trials, likely in early 2025. Additionally, another water provider case is being readied for trial against an AFFF manufacturer that has not yet settled the litigation.

It will be a busy year in the AFFF litigation, and we are grateful for the opportunity to assist you. If you have any questions, please contact ELG at 205.328.9200.

According to new research funded by the U.S. government, women exposed to PFAS appear to face a higher risk of ovarian and other types of cancers, including a doubling of odds for melanoma. PFAS may disrupt hormone functions specific to women, which is a potential mechanism for increasing their likelihood of developing hormone-driven cancers, the researchers determined. Hormonally active cancers are difficult to cure, making deeper inquiry into potential environmental causes essential. Researchers also found a link between PFNA exposure and uterine cancer.

According to a Mount Sinai report, Asian Americans have significantly higher exposure to PFAS than other ethnic or racial groups. The median exposure score for this racial group was 88% higher than for non-Hispanic whites, the researchers found. Asian Americans likely have much higher levels of PFAS in their blood than other U.S. races and ethnicities. The study factored sociodemographic, dietary, and behavioral characteristics into its algorithm, which makes it more sensitive to exposure differences among cultures than the standard methods used by the U.S. government and most of the scientific community.

Scientists collected tap water samples from 716 locations representing a range of low, medium, and high human-impacted areas. While the low category includes protected lands and the medium one includes residential and rural areas with no known PFAS sources, the high category includes urban areas and locations with reported PFAS sources, such as industry or waste sites. Most of the exposure was observed near urban areas and potential PFAS sources, such as the Great Plains, Eastern Seaboard, Great Lakes, and Central and Southern California regions. The study's results are in line with previous research, concluding that residents in urban areas have a greater likelihood of PFAS exposure. Scientists estimate that the probability of PFAS not being observed in tap water is about 75% in rural areas and around 25% in urban areas. 

A new paper from the Annals of Global Health examines documents from DuPont and 3M, the largest manufacturers of PFAS, and analyzes the tactics the industry used to delay public awareness of PFAS toxicity and, in turn, delay regulations governing their use. The secret industry documents were discovered in a lawsuit filed by attorney Robert Bilott, who was the first to successfully sue DuPont for PFAS contamination. Little was publicly known about the toxicity of PFAS for the first 50 years of their use, the authors stated in the paper. "DuPont had evidence of PFAS toxicity from internal animal and occupational studies that they did not publish in the scientific literature and failed to report their findings to EPA as required under TSCA. These documents were all marked as 'confidential,' and in some cases, industry executives are explicit that they 'wanted this memo destroyed,'" states the paper.

People living in communities with higher proportions of Black and Hispanic or Latino residents are more likely to be exposed to dangerous PFAS levels in their water supplies than those living in other communities, according to a study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The researchers connect this finding to the disproportionate siting of sources of PFAS pollution, such as manufacturers, airports, wastewater treatment plants, military bases, and landfills near watersheds serving these communities. "Our work suggests that the sociodemographic groups that are often stressed by other factors, including marginalization, racism, and poverty, are also more highly exposed to PFAS in drinking water," said first author Jahred Liddie, a Ph.D. student in population health sciences at Harvard Chan School.

Between 2016 and 2022, the EPA worked off an advisory health limit of 70 ppt for PFOS and PFOA. However, the agency set a new legal limit of 4 ppt for these highly toxic chemicals in drinking water, which science shows are still dangerous to consume. Last year, after science showed that no level of exposure to PFAS from drinking water is safe, the EPA set non-enforceable "advisory health limits" of 0.02 ppt for PFOA and 0.004 ppt for PFOS. Public health advocates believe that the discrepancy is likely the consequence of industry pressure on the EPA and a lack of ability of PFAS tests that regulators use to check water for the chemicals at levels as low as 0.02 ppt.