Federal Judge Allows Connecticut Firefighters' Lawsuit Over PFAS in Turnout Gear to Proceed

September 15, 2026

A federal judge has allowed Connecticut firefighters to pursue a court-ordered medical monitoring program for injuries allegedly caused by PFAS in their protective gear, even though they have not developed symptoms. The ruling allows their core product liability claims against 3M, DuPont, and protective gear manufacturers to proceed.

The decision advances an emerging area of Connecticut law: whether people injured by toxic substances can require those responsible to fund medical testing before disease appears. U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson becomes the second federal judge in Connecticut to allow plaintiffs to pursue medical monitoring without requiring physical symptoms. His 61-page opinion provides what appears to be the district’s most detailed analysis to date of the legal basis for that relief.

The ruling builds on Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer’s 2023 decision in Clinger v. Edgewell Personal Care Brands, LLC, a case involving alleged benzene contamination in sunscreen. Judge Meyer declined to require symptoms before allowing plaintiffs to seek medical monitoring, explaining that such a requirement would seem to defeat the remedy’s purpose. Judge Thompson expressly adopted that reasoning.

Judge Thompson’s decision goes further by addressing both the firefighters’ standing to sue and the injury required under the Connecticut Product Liability Act (CPLA). The defendants argued that the firefighters had alleged only a risk of future illness. The court held that their allegations of existing subcellular injury were sufficient at the pleading stage, even though the effects of that injury had not yet appeared.

The court also explained that the requested monitoring program would remedy injuries already incurred. The firefighters therefore did not have to establish an imminent threat of additional harm to seek that relief. Medical monitoring remains available as a remedy under their surviving CPLA claims.

Silver Golub & Teitell (SGT) represents the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut, 12 local firefighter unions, and 12 individual firefighters. The lawsuit alleges that firefighters absorbed, ingested, and inhaled toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from their turnout gear, the protective jackets and pants they wear on the job. They seek a defendant-funded testing and monitoring program to detect PFAS-related disease at an early stage.

The court also allowed negligence and failure-to-warn claims against 3M to proceed, along with a strict liability design-defect claim concerning PFAS-containing materials 3M allegedly manufactured for turnout gear. The unions may pursue claims for injuries to the unions themselves.

The court dismissed the unions’ claims for medical monitoring and damages on behalf of their members, as well as the strict liability design-defect claim based on 3M’s manufacture of PFAS chemicals. It also dismissed medical monitoring and punitive damages as standalone causes of action while preserving both as potential remedies.

SGT filed the lawsuit in June 2024. The case is Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut et al. v. 3M Company et al., No. 3:24-cv-1101 (AWT) (D. Conn.). The firefighters are represented by SGT partners Jennifer Sclar and Ian Sloss and associate Kate Sayed.

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