3M Vows to Fight Lawsuits Alleging The Faulty Design of the 3M Combat Army Earplug

Army Earplug Lawsuit News

Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed that claim 3M knowingly sold the US Army a defective combat protection device

Wednesday, August 28, 2019 - On August 24, 2019, www.KPVI.com reported on the latest US soldier to file a lawsuit seeking reimbursement for damages allegedly caused by the faulty and defective 3M Combat Army Earplugs. According to KPVI, Steven Mayo a Naval veteran who had served four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan the US Navy alleges in his lawsuit that the 3M corporation "knowingly distributed defective earplugs to the U.S. military and that the faulty equipment failed to protect his ears from developing tinnitus." Tinnitus is a maddening condition where the victim experiences a constant ringing in the ears much like the din of insects in the evening or the mating call of the Cidaca, which can be heard from a mile away. A tinnitus sufferer usually has trouble sleeping is forced to keep the TV on or a fan running to drown out the constant ringing. Army earplug lawsuit lawyers are achieving justice on behalf of American families harmed by negligence and offer a free consultation.

The lawsuit specifically accuses the earplugs of having a faulty design that caused them to malfunction during their intended usage by loosening imperceptibly when used as directed. Lawyers for the plaintiff will argue that 3M "should be held accountable for those products that utterly fail to do the most basic of that which they're represented to do." according to the news organization. Hearing loss and tinnitus, in particular, is the number one cause of a soldier's disability according to The Military Times and soldiers with verifiable hearing impairment have been put in touch with combat earplug attorneys by contacting the military base in which they served.

According to The Military Times, hundreds of soldiers around the country have filed similar lawsuits accusing 3M of knowingly selling a defective product to the military and the company recently paid a $9.1 million settlement of a whistleblower/Department of Justice lawsuit alleging just that. 3M has decided to fight back against the wave of lawsuits and a company spokesperson issued a statement saying in part that the company worked closely with the army when developing the product and sought feedback from soldiers. The company denies that the product's design is defective, however, the spokesperson declined to comment about the Mayo litigation specifically. A whistleblower claims that Aearo Technologies, the original designer of the 3M Combat Army Earplugs, manipulated earplug testing data to show that the earplugs were effective when in fact they were not when representing the earplugs to the military for consideration.

Plaintiffs will argue that even positive testing data is likely to be insufficient as tests were conducted in a controlled laboratory setting and failed to reflect the constant motion and typical physical movements of a soldier in combat which would be likely to cause the earplugs to loosen or fall out altogether. According to KPVE, Mayo's lawsuit claims that he "was continuously exposed to loud noises and explosions," and when he wasn't deployed or training, he used the same earplugs when shooting at firing ranges and doing other training and combat exercises where he was exposed to the loud and close fire of weapons."

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