Unmasking PFAS

By Justin Shireman | The National Law Review | September 26, 2025

Read the full article by Justin Shireman (The National Law Review)

"The product identification process presently under way in the Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) multidistrict litigation (MDL) offers an innovative application of discovery practices used in other complex litigation and toxic tort actions in assessing manufacturer defendants’ potential liability in the MDL.

In deviating from pure market-share liability principles while applying product identification discovery practices used in national tobacco and toxic tort litigation, the AFFF MDL product identification discovery plan aims to collect extensive data from a representative pool of “sites” concerning the presence (or absence) of particular chemical products at these “representative sites.”

The selection of these “representative sites” considers the variety of plaintiffs in the MDL (including government municipalities, public water providers, industrial sites, private property owners, and individuals) and that the source of every potential exposure would be difficult, if not impossible, to identify (unlike, for example, in an individual asbestos case)."

Topics:

• ChemicalsPFAS
• ChemicalsPolymer
• ProductsFirefighting foam
• SourcesAirports
• SourcesManufacturing facilities
• SourcesMilitary bases
• Affected community
• Health