What is AFFF?

Aqueous Film Forming Foam (or AFFF) is a firefighting foam developed jointly by the US Navy and the 3M Company in the 1960s and is used to extinguish fires from liquid fuels.

Due to PFAS toxicity of AFFF in military base drinking water systems, the military is attempting to phase out of using AFFF as a fire suppression method; however, it is still commonly used in the military on flight lines and Navy vessels because of its effectiveness in extinguishing fuel fires.

Why is there a lawsuit?

When AFFF was used to extinguish fires on military bases, the discharged firefighting foam contaminated the base’s drinking water supply. The contamination on and around military bases is magnitudes greater than any drinking water system in the United States.

The US Government and Manufacturers of AFFF had a responsibility to mitigate and disclose the contamination of base drinking water but did not do so, resulting in millions of servicemen and women and their families unknowingly consuming toxic levels of PFAS chemicals on a regular basis for many years.

Who can file a claim?

Any US military veteran, active servicemember, military dependents and contractors who regularly lived and worked on or near a US military base who developed certain cancers or serious health conditions can file a claim.

You can learn more about who can file a claim in our FAQ section.

Our Legal ExpertS

Andrew J. Cobos

Attorney-at-Law
Chief Veteran Legal Counsel

Andrew Cobos serves as the Chief Veteran Legal Counsel at PFAS Water Experts. As a West Point graduate (2003) and combat veteran, he has a deep passion for helping those who have served our country get the compensation they deserve for complex injury cases.

FAQs

AFFF was used extensively on hundreds of military bases and contaminated the drinking water supply with toxic cancer-causing PFAS chemicals for millions of prior and current servicemembers and their families who lived on or near these military bases.

Because this toxic contamination in potable base tap water was not disclosed or remediated, servicemen and women and their families consumed extremely high levels of PFAS chemicals on a regular basis for many years, causing a higher rate of cancers and other rare conditions than other demographic groups in the US.  The failure to disclose and filter the drinking water to non-toxic levels on military installations is the basis for this lawsuit.

There are two requirements that must be met in determining whether a military service member, veteran, military dependent, or contractor can file a claim:

  1. You were/are diagnosed with a qualifying cancer (see the qualifying cancer list in the FAQ section), ulcerative colitis, severe hypothyroidism, or Parkinson’s Disease.
  2. You were diagnosed for one of the above qualifying conditions after living on or near a US military base after 1970.

You can find out if you qualify instantly HERE.

Base water systems continue to be tested but just about every US military base tested extremely high for AFFF contaminated drinking water.  Navy and Air Force bases tend to have the worst contamination concentrations in their drinking water systems, but there are also many Army bases and National Guard facilities with extremely contaminated water supplies.  You can see which bases tested the highest for toxic PFAS compounds HERE.

The main PFAS chemical compounds in AFFF that are known to cause cancer are PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate).

Currently, the science has conclusively tied the following cancers to toxic PFOA and PFOS consumption:

  • Testicular cancer
  • Kidney cancer

There are also some studies that associate liver cancer, thyroid cancer, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma to consuming certain PFAS chemicals.

Prostate, bladder, and pancreatic cancers are not currently qualifying cancers in this lawsuit; however, this may change in the future if further studies are conducted that tie these conditions to PFAS exposure through ingesting contaminated food and water.

No, this claim will not negatively affect any pending VA Disability claims or any existing VA Disability Ratings or status.

In fact, if you have not made a VA Disability claim for a qualifying cancer, ulcerative colitis, hypothyroidism, or Parkinson’s Disease, we can provide you with assistance in filing your VA Disability claim in addition to your private legal claim.

No.  As of 2024, you can still file a claim even if you were treated for your cancer and are now in remission.

No. Many firms are incorrectly advertising this lawsuit as a class action suit.  But it is actually a mass tort — which is fundamentally different than a class action. In this lawsuit, each claimant suffered different severities of injury and will therefore maintain individual claims (as opposed to an evenly distributed class claim with a class representative). You will be able to determine whether you want to settle your individual suit or try the case.

Settlement amounts drastically differ between class action suits and mass torts.  A mass tort settlement for a qualified claimant typically starts at thousands of dollars and can range up to millions of dollars. We believe that the a qualified claimant in the AFFF lawsuit will be able to claim hundreds of thousands of dollars on average.

No. There is a lot of misinformation circulating about the AFFF lawsuit, who qualifies, and what the lawsuit is actually about.

While it’s true that the US Navy and US Air Force had more direct occupational exposure to AFFF than any other military service branch, it is the fact that the AFFF contaminated the drinking water systems for the entire military installation.

Therefore, the AFFF lawsuit applies to ALL prior and current servicemembers and their dependents and contractors if they lived on or near any US military base for at least 6 consecutive months.

That means that any prior or current servicemember who at least completed basic training and served after 1970 likely meets the exposure criteria of this lawsuit.  If that person was additionally diagnosed with a qualifying cancer or other condition, then they would qualify for the AFFF lawsuit.

You can sign up right through our site by answering some questions via a brief questionnaire. If you are a strong candidate for this case, you will have the opportunity to complete the signup process directly online. You can complete that entire process in less than 5 minutes HERE.

After you sign up with our firm, we will ask you to gather any documents regarding your diagnosis and treatment as well as documents regarding your service dates.

Lawsuit Updates

List of Military Bases with AFFF Contamination

VA Disability Resources