SUFFOLK CLOSEUP: AG Targets ‘Forever Chemical’ Companies

As the effects of PFAS, called “forever chemicals” for their persistence, reverberated across the U.S.—in Suffolk County because of their impacts on the underground water table, our sole source of potable water—New York State’s attorney general has brought a lawsuit charging corporations involved with PFAS with being in violation of many state laws.

In an extensive 71-page lawsuit brought in July in New York Supreme Court, Attorney General Letitia James presents corporate documents as evidence that DuPont and other PFAS-connected corporations knew about the major threats to human health and the environment posed by PFAS, but pushed PFAS products anyway.

And in August, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Lee Zeldin, a Shirley resident now administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to, as Newsday reported, take “steps to protect Long Island drinking water from forever chemicals as the agency proposes rollbacks on [federal PFAS] regulations.” In addition to DuPont, which developed Teflon in 1938, the lawsuit charges the 3M Company; IEDP, Inc.; The Chemours Company; and Corteva, Inc. with violations of state laws.

The lawsuit lists the laws as including: “Protection of the State’s Natural Resources Under New York State Constitution and Statutory Law; Public Nuisance Under New York Common Law; Strict Products Liability: Failure to Warn Under New York Common Law.”

Also, it cites the “Green Amendment” to the State Constitution, which “provides that ‘each person shall have a right to clean air and water and a healthful environment.’”

The lawsuit starts: “As a consequence of the defendants’ manufacture, production, marketing and sale of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—PFAS—for use in consumer products, the State of New York faces threats to human health, widespread contamination, and damage to natural resources on an unprecedented scale.”

It continues: “Long after they knew their PFAS were toxic, defendants manufactured and sold these compounds for use in consumer products—including personal, family, and household products like Stainmaster carpets, Scotchgard stain-repellent sprays, grease-resistant coatings for food packaging, cosmetics, and personal care items—that defendants knew would be sold, used, and disposed of in New York, thereby exposing people to PFAS and releasing PFAS into New York’s environment.”

It goes on: “As the result of defendants’ conduct, PFAS…are in the water we drink, the soil that sustains our crops, the fish we catch, and the air we breathe….PFAS are highly resistant to degradation in the environment, travel easily through water and air, and bioaccumulate in humans, plants and animals.”

“People exposed to defendants’ PFAS suffer various negative health effects, including higher risks of certain cancers, adverse pregnancy outcomes, liver disease, endocrine disruption, and other increased risks,” it says.

As evidence of “knowledge”—that the companies knew about the “severe health and environmental risks” of PFAS—the lawsuit points to numerous corporate documents.

The lawsuit can be viewed online at https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/new-york-lawsuit-forever-chemicals-drinking-water.pdf