Veterans suing 3M over earplugs Posted on March 12, 2019 by Andrew Findley CBS News reports that hundreds of military veterans are expected to file lawsuits against 3M, the manufacturer of earplugs that the veterans say didn’t work as claimed and left them with damaged hearing. The Justice Department settled with 3M last summer over claims that the earplugs had “dangerous design defects” after being used by soldiers to protect their hearing for “more than a decade.” 3M paid $9.1 million in the settlement, but didn’t admit to any liability. A lawsuit filed by the government and one of 3M’s competitors alleged that 3M knew about the design flaw, but continued to sell the earplugs to the military from 2003 to 2015. 3M denies that the earplugs were defective. CBS News has a video interview with two veterans who suffer from hearing loss that they say was caused by the ineffective earplugs.
