Griffin: ‘PFAS present significant threats to Arkansans and our natural resources’

LITTLE ROCK – After filing a lawsuit against a group of companies including 3M and DuPont, Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement:

“Today I’ve filed a lawsuit in Washington County against companies that manufactured and sold PFAS (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances). PFAS are chemicals that resist stains, grease, oil, soil, water and heat. They are sometimes called ‘forever chemicals’ because they don’t break down in the environment or in our bodies.

“PFAS present significant threats to Arkansans and our natural resources. They are toxic at extremely low levels. The defendants bear ultimate responsibility for the presence of PFAS in our state, which have caused and will continue to cause injury to property owned and maintained by the state.

“3M, DuPont and many other manufacturers knew that their PFAS products were harmful to humans, yet they continued to manufacture and sell them without warning consumers of their dangers. In addition to being in many products that Arkansans use every day, there are a number of sites across the state where PFAS may have found its way into Arkansas’s waters and other natural resources. This includes the former Eaker Air Force Base in Blytheville, Little Rock Air Force Base and Ebbing Air National Guard Base at Fort Smith.

“Arkansas joins many states, cities and water providers that have sued these companies, targeting them for product liability, deceptive trade practices, public nuisance and negligence. We are seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief.”

PFAS has been around for decades and can be found in a wide array of products and industrial processes, including, but not limited to:

• food packaging and preparation materials (e.g., sandwich wrappers and other papers and paperboard for packaging); 
• household products; 
• stain and water repellant fabrics and carpets; 
• nonstick products;
• polishes, waxes and paints;
• cleaning products;
• surfactants used in Class B firefighting foams (AFFF);
• personal care products;
• in manufacturing and production, including in chrome plating, electronics manufacturing, textile manufacturing, oil recovery; 
• as a wetting agent and fume suppressant; and
• as a processing aid in fluoropolymer production and in textile coating applications.

To read the lawsuit, click here.

About Attorney General Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin was elected attorney general of Arkansas on November 8, 2022. He was elected lieutenant governor of Arkansas on November 4, 2014, and was re-elected for his second four-year term on November 6, 2018. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24^th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District. For the 113^th Congress, he was a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority. In the 112^th Congress, he served as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve’s Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for over 25 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky and served with the 101^st Airborne Division (Air Assault in Mosul, Iraq). He is currently serving as the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) for the 81^st Readiness Division at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Prior to his current post, Griffin served as the Commander of the 134^th Legal Operations Detachment (LOD) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and a senior legislative advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin holds a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. He also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush. Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.  

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