TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Paul Burch on Nov 28, 2023

The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on Monday vacated a lower court’s approval of a class action lawsuit comprising nearly 11.8 million Ohio residents against manufacturers of “forever chemicals” that are said to contaminate the environment, Reuters reports. The court ruled that the lead plaintiff, Ohio firefighter Kevin Hardwick, didn’t have standing to sue 10 companies over the chemicals found in his bloodstream. The appeals court instructed the lower court to dismiss the lawsuit, which had aimed to force the companies to pay for studies analyzing the health impacts of chemicals known as PFAs used in a wide range of consumer products including firefighting foam and non-stick pans. The PFAs have been tied to cancer and other diseases.