Woman Files Class Action Lawsuit, Says Cottonelle Flushable Wipes Made Her Sick

A consumer from New York has filed a class action lawsuit against the maker of Cottonelle Flushable Wipes, saying a contaminated batch made her seriously ill to the point she needed medical testing and prescription medication.

The bacteria contamination led the Kimberly-Clark Corporation to issue a recall of the personal hygiene cloths in October, approximately seven months after the products were first tainted, the class action says. The delay in detecting bacteria in the wipes, and in responding to customer complaints about problems, amount to violations of New York state consumer protection laws, the plaintiff claims.

Dawn Rothfeld of New York says she bought Cottonelle Flushable Wipes beginning roughly in February and continuously through October from a local Costco store. She used the wipes on a daily basis and began to suffer from “urinary tract infections, bladder pressure, incomplete bladder emptying, voiding urgency, painful urination and increased frequency of urination,” her class action lawsuit says.

Because of the illness brought on by the wipes, Rothfeld was prescribed antibiotics and had to undergo various medical tests, ultrasounds of the abdomen and the bladder, she claims.

Throughout her illness, and to this day, Rothfeld says she has experienced pain, weakness, fatigue, stomach discomfort, nausea, vomiting, difficulty walking, stress, anxiety, apprehension, mental distress, fear, tension and severe emotional trauma.

Rothfeld filed her class action lawsuit on Nov. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She is seeking to represent a Class of New York consumers who purchased the contaminated wipes and will number “in the thousands.” The Kimberly-Clark Corporation is the sole named defendant.

The bacteria involved in the case, a strain called Pluralibacter gergoviae, infected batches of Cottonelle Flushable Wipes and Cottonelle GentlePlus Flushable Wipes manufactured between Feb. 7 and Sept. 14, according to the company’s recall notice. The products were sold throughout the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean.

Pluralibacter gergoviae is a naturally occurring bacteria in the environment and the human body and while it is rare for it to cause serious infection in healthy people, anyone with a compromised immune system is at higher risk of developing an illness from it.

In the months the wipes were being manufactured and contaminated, Kimberly-Clark’s operations “lacked the appropriate safeguards to detect and/or remediate bacterial contamination in its products,” the Rothfeld class action lawsuit claims. Unaware of the problem, Kimberly-Clark continued selling the wipes for nearly seven months “despite ample warnings that something was wrong.”

Rothfeld says many of the Cottonelle Flushable Wipes infected with the bacteria had dark brown spots and mildew-like odors, “both of which are recognized as indicators of bacterial contamination by manufacturers of cosmetics and personal care products.”

Even so, the company did not investigate the matter until several complaints were lodged by consumers who reported developing skin irritation, infection and “other complications,” the class action lawsuit claims.

The product testing that followed identified the bacterial contamination, which prompted the recall.

“Kimberly-Clark neglected the safety and sanitation responsibilities it owed to its customers and the public at large,” the Rothfeld class action says.

Rothfeld’s is not the first class action lawsuit filed against Kimberly-Clark over the contaminated Cottonelle Flushable Wipes. Two other consumers filed a similar class action in federal court in Texas last month seeking to represent a nationwide Class of consumers who bought the wipes and a Class of those who bought them in California.

The lead plaintiffs in that case, Melissa Armstrong and Roland Nadeau, filed just a week after Kimberly-Clark announced the recall and argue many of the same points as Rothfeld.

Do you use Cottonelle Flushable Wipes? Tell us about it in the comment section below.

Rothfeld and the proposed Class Members are represented by James F. Murphy of Lewis Johs Avallone Aviles LLP, and Michael R. Reese of Reese LLP.

The Cottonelle Flushable Wipes Class Action Lawsuit is Dawn Rothfeld, et al. v. Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Case No. 2:20-cv-05647, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

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