Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking several chemical manufacturers to court over PFAS, otherwise known as forever chemicals.
He is suing 3M, Corteva, and DuPont over the safety of products like Teflon, Stainmaster, and Scotchguard. Paxton says that the companies knew for decades that PFAS could cause serious harm, yet continued to market them.
He says that Texas is taking action to penalize the companies and will hold them accountable for consumers.
We are learning more about how those forever chemicals are impacting local farmers.
One cattle producer from Johnson County says that sewage-based fertilizers contaminated with PFAS were sprayed on neighboring land. He claims those chemicals ultimately killed several of his livestock and horses.
Tony Coleman told The Texas Tribune that in 2023 his cattle began to drool, then started to limp, growing slower and slower until going stiff and ultimately dying.
He watched more than 35 of his black Angus cattle die.
Environmental crime investigators collected samples from dead animals, their water source, and from their neighbor’s soil and fertilizer. They found the fertilizer was ultimately contaminated with PFAS.
The Colemans and other local farmers have sued the fertilizer company Synagro as a result.
