Published July 23, 2026
As of June 17, 2026, the federal AFFF (aqueous film-forming foam) firefighting foam litigation — MDL No. 2873, pending before Judge Richard M. Gergel in the US District Court for the District of South Carolina — had grown to roughly 23,573 pending cases, making it one of the largest active mass torts in the country. That's up sharply from around 11,000 cases pending at the start of 2025, reflecting a wave of new filings over the past year and a half.
The lawsuits allege that manufacturers including 3M, DuPont, BASF, and Johnson Controls knew for decades that PFAS chemicals in AFFF firefighting foam — used extensively by military and civilian firefighters to suppress fuel fires — were linked to serious health conditions, including kidney cancer, testicular cancer, liver cancer, and thyroid cancer, and failed to adequately warn users.
Despite the litigation's size and years of proceedings, no global settlement covering personal-injury claims has been reached as of mid-2026. Attorneys involved in the case have described previous rounds of settlement talks as "false starts," and the litigation remains largely in discovery and expert-evidence phases. Without a confirmed bellwether trial date on the calendar, there's less of the trial pressure that typically pushes mass tort defendants toward a global resolution.
It's worth distinguishing this personal-injury track from the multibillion-dollar settlements 3M and DuPont/Chemours/Corteva have already finalized with public water utilities over PFAS contamination in drinking water. Those settlements compensate water systems, not individuals who say AFFF exposure made them sick — personal injury claims are a separate, still-unresolved part of the same overall litigation. If you're a firefighter, military servicemember, or airport/industrial worker who was regularly exposed to AFFF and later diagnosed with cancer or another qualifying condition, a free eligibility review can help clarify your options. See Atumio's AFFF Firefighting Foam Lawsuit page or start a free case review.