3M Knew of Earplugs’ Hearing Loss Risk, Veterans’ Group Argues

3M Co. knowingly failed to warn the US military and servicemembers about the risk of hearing loss from use of its combat earplugs, a veterans’ organization told the Eleventh Circuit in a friend of the court brief.

3M knew about a design flaw in its subsidiary Aearo Technologies LLC’s Combat Arms version 2 earplugs that made them ineffective, the Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation said Tuesday. And it didn’t “tell anybody about this defect until it was forced to do so during discovery in an unrelated lawsuit,” the group said.

The company therefore isn’t entitled to immunity ...