$34M Class Action Settlement Reached Saint-Gobain Plastics Over Teflon Contamination of Water, Blood

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

$34M Teflon Contamination Class Action Settlement Overview:

• Who: Residents of Bennington, Vermont, have reached a settlement with plastics company Saint-Gobain.
• Why: The $34 million settlement ends claims that the company leached toxic chemicals into the town’s water supply, which ended up in their bodies while manufacturing Teflon.
• Where: The proposed settlement is pending in Bennington, Vermont.

Residents of a town in Vermont have asked a judge to sign off on a $34 million settlement with Saint-Gobain to end a class action lawsuit accusing the company of tainting their town’s drinking water and their own blood with Teflon, a chemical used to make non-stick pans.

In a memo filed Nov. 10 in a Vermont federal court, residents of Bennington asked the court to approve their proposed settlement with Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp.

The settlement would end claims the company contaminated their private drinking water wells with the hazardous chemical Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) while manufacturing Teflon.

Saint-Gobain Teflon Water Contamination Class Action Settlement

As part of the proposed deal, Saint-Gobain agreed to pay $26.2 million in property damages for class members whose land was devalued by the release of PFOA into the soil and drinking water, the memo says.

The company would also pay $6 million to a medical monitoring fund for those who possibly drank the toxic chemical when getting water from their wells, under the proposed class action settlement. The medical monitoring would try to detect certain diseases early in the plaintiffs.

The proposed settlement agreement would also net plaintiffs’ counsel up to $6.6 million in attorney fees, plus $1.04 million to cover the costs of litigating the class action, the memo states.

The lawsuit arose due to allegations that go back to between 1969 and 2002 when Saint-Gobain and a predecessor produced fabrics coated in Teflon at a pair of factories that used PFOA.

Public officials in Vermont in 2016 found that some drinking wells in the area had high levels of PFOA, and after a lawsuit by a state agency, the company agreed to “furnish municipal water to the majority of contaminated wells and to provide point-of-entry treatment systems” to some homes that couldn’t be reached by other means.

The news comes after residents of Hoosick Falls, New York, reached a $65 million settlement with Saint-Gobain, 3M, and Honeywell in July to end a class action lawsuit accusing the companies of tainting the town’s drinking water with perfluorooctanoic acid.

In that case, the residents allege that a foam used at a water facility in the town contained PFOA chemicals, which seeped into the water supply and therefore into residents’ bodies. 

Learn about class action lawsuits and settlements by signing up for Top Class Actions’ free weekly newsletter! 

The plaintiffs are represented by Gary Davis and Jamie Whitlock of Davis & Whitlock PC, Emily Joselson of Langrock Sperry & Wool LLP, and David F. Silver of Barr Sternberg Moss Silver & Munson PC.

The Saint-Gobain Vermont Water Class Action Settlement is Sullivan et al. v. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp., Case No. 5:16-cv-00125, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont.

Read About More Class Action Lawsuits & Class Action Settlements:

• Firefighting Foam Cancer Risk: Have You Been Exposed?
• Washington Seeks $95b From Opioid Distributors for Their Alleged Roles in State’s Ongoing Crisis
• The Controversial Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Settlement, Explained
• Trial Begins in Ohio Over Allegations Walmart, CVS, Walgreens Contributed to Opioid Crisis