Defective 3M earplugs may cause military noise induced hearing loss, and many service members may have been affected, according to a recent settlement from 3M, as well as a whistleblower lawsuit.

Following a lawsuit settled between the U.S. Justice Department and 3M in July regarding the company’s allegedly defective military earplugs, hundreds of military veterans are expected to file their own lawsuits over the allegedly dangerous devices.

In the recent lawsuit between the Justice Department and 3M, 3M agreed to pay over $9 million to the government without admitting any guilt in the case. According to CBS News, the accusations against 3M allege that the company defrauded the government for over a decade by selling defective and dangerous earplugs to the military.

According to several service members who spoke to CBS News, many veterans believe that their hearing loss is normal and was due to their close proximity to firearms, heavy artillery, and tanks during their service. Many veterans believed that their hearing protection was specially designed for military use and was the best ear protection available. Now that the settlement between the Justice Department and 3M has become public, hundreds of veterans are expected to file their own lawsuits against the company regarding the injuries and permanent damages they have suffered due to 3M’s earplugs.

In addition to the alleged defects of the earplugs’ designs, veterans now also have reason to believe that 3M may have known about the dangers of their devices and sold them to the military anyway. According to one service member who was interviewed by CBS News, “It wasn’t an omission. It wasn’t something missed. It was deliberately lying to gain money and hurting our service members.”

If you are a veteran or active duty member and you were issued military earplugs between 2002 and 2015, you may have been affected. If you suffered military noise induced hearing loss despite wearing earplugs issued to you during this time, you could have been negatively affected by these defective earplugs.

Between 2002 and 2015, thousands of U.S. service members were issued Dual-Ended Combat Arms Earplugs (CAEv2) manufactured by 3M, a company headquartered in Saint Paul, Minn. 3M produces a range of products for the military, focusing on protective gear. The 3M website notes that the company supplies the military with ballistic helmets, body armor, protective eyewear, and protective communications in addition to hearing protection devices.

Despite its seemingly reliable products, the earplugs produced by 3M may not have been as reliable as advertised. The earplug maker Moldex-Metric Inc. reportedly filed a whistleblower lawsuit against 3M in 2016 claiming that 3M’s military earplugs were too short to provide proper hearing protection to wearers. This whistleblower lawsuit reportedly follows a history of lawsuits that Moldex-Metric and 3M have launched against one another.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that Moldex-Metric claimed that the short length of the earplugs caused them to loosen and come out during use, making them less effective in protecting against dangerous sounds to which service members are exposed during combat, possibly leading to military noise induced hearing loss. 

Moldex-Metric alleged that the earplugs loosen “imperceptibly,” in such a way that the wearer may not notice the difference and cannot adjust them to prevent noise exposure.

The Star Tribune also reported that Moldex claimed that the 3M earplugs failed to pass certain safety tests. Allegedly, 3M knew this, but still sold the military defective earplugs, which violated military safety contracts. Moldex contends that 3M knowingly exposed service members to military noise induced hearing loss in the interest of their own profits.

This lawsuit precipitated an investigation into the issue by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) into the Dual-Ended Combat Arms Earplugs. Based on its investigation, the DOJ alleged that 3M had violated the False Claims Act and argued that 3M did know that the earplugs were defective but sold them to the government anyway.

In July, 3M agreed to settle the Department of Justice’s allegations for $9.1 million. In agreeing to this settlement, 3M did not admit guilt to the allegations of misrepresenting the earplugs or violating the False Claims Act, saying that the settlement represents “simply a decision to move forward with our mission to provide high quality personal safety equipment products to our customers.”

3M gave a statement on the earplugs settlement stating that “settling the investigation into this discontinued product at this point allows the matter to no longer be a distraction to the business, and frees former and current 3M employees from having to go through the inconvenience of protected investigation and litigation.”

The 3M Military Earplugs Lawsuit is Case No. 3:16-cv-1533-MBS (D.S.C.), in the U.S. District of South Carolina.