Firefighter turnout gear PFAS lawsuit

The docket record

Full docket title: IN RE: Non-AFFF Firefighter Turnout Gear Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation. Programmatic record page: MDL 3191.

Where it stands

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPML) created MDL No. 3191 on August 18, 2026, centralizing 5 actions from 3 federal districts (later potential tag-along actions brought the total to 8, per the JPML's September 1, 2026 pending-MDL report) before Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan in the District of Minnesota. This is the earliest possible stage of a mass tort: there is no publicly posted master complaint, no plaintiff fact sheet, and no bellwether trial pool yet. Importantly, the actions the Panel actually transferred are class actions brought by municipalities, counties, and fire protection districts as purchasers of turnout gear (economic-loss and consumer-protection claims), not individual firefighter personal-injury lawsuits over specific diseases. A separate action by a firefighters' association in Connecticut was noted by the Panel as related but was not itself transferred in this order. MDL 3191 is legally and administratively distinct from the much larger AFFF (aqueous film-forming foam) firefighting-foam MDL, No. 2873, pending before Judge Richard Gergel in South Carolina.

Sources: In re: Non-AFFF Firefighter Turnout Gear Marketing, Sales… · Pending MDL Dockets By MDL Number (report date 9/1/2026) · Pending MDL Dockets By District (report date 9/1/2026) · Pending MDLs; full list at the end of this page.

What the lawsuits are about

Turnout gear is the multi-layer protective clothing (coats, pants, hoods, gloves, boots) firefighters wear on the job. Plaintiffs allege that manufacturers used per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the gear's moisture-barrier layers and in durable water repellent (DWR) finishes applied to outer shells, and that PFAS in this equipment is toxic to firefighters and the environment. The transferred actions assert negligence, strict products liability, fraudulent misrepresentation, and violations of state consumer-protection statutes on behalf of proposed nationwide and state classes of turnout-gear purchasers, and seek relief tied to the purchase and use of gear containing PFAS rather than compensation for a specific diagnosed disease.

A plaintiff in a City of Rochester, Minnesota action moved the JPML to centralize the litigation under 28 U.S.C. section 1407. Plaintiffs and defendants disagreed over venue (Minnesota, Montana, South Carolina, and Northern California were all proposed) and over whether the cases belonged inside the existing AFFF MDL (No. 2873) instead. The Panel rejected folding turnout-gear-only claims into the AFFF MDL, noting it had drawn that line before (an order denying a similar transfer request, Dec. 11, 2025) and that AFFF-MDL Judge Gergel already manages more than 15,000 actions. On August 18, 2026, the Panel created a new, separate MDL in the District of Minnesota before Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan, citing Minnesota's connection to defendant 3M Company (headquartered there) and the fact that 3 of the 5 moving actions were already pending in that district. The Panel simultaneously renamed the litigation 'In re: Non-AFFF Firefighter Turnout Gear Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation' to make clear it is separate from the AFFF MDL; the Panel said it will keep routing any case that alleges both AFFF and turnout-gear PFAS harm to the AFFF MDL instead.

As of the JPML's September 1, 2026 pending-MDL report, 8 actions were pending in MDL 3191 in the District of Minnesota. Judge Bryan, who had not previously presided over an MDL, has not yet issued a case-management order establishing a master complaint, a plaintiff fact sheet, or a bellwether trial schedule, and none of those documents were located in the public record as of this writing. There is no settlement, no claims process, and no ruling on class certification.

Injuries named in the filings

• The transferred actions are purchaser/economic-loss class claims, not individual personal-injury claims; the transfer order does not identify a specific diagnosed disease as the basis for the claims on Schedule A
• General allegation that PFAS in turnout gear can harm firefighters who wear, store, and clean the gear (as characterized by the JPML in its transfer order)
• Alleged environmental contamination from PFAS in turnout gear where it is used, stored, and cleaned

Principal defendants: 3M Company; Globe Manufacturing Company, LLC; Elevate Textiles, Inc.; Safety Components Fabric Technologies, Inc.; Honeywell Safety Products USA, Inc.; Fire-Dex, LLP; Lion Group, Inc.; Morning Pride Manufacturing L.L.C.; Southern Mills, Inc. (d/b/a TenCate Protective Fabrics USA); EIDP, Inc.; DuPont de Nemours, Inc.; The Chemours Company; The Chemours Company FC, LLC; Corteva, Inc.; Milliken & Company; W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc.; Stedfast USA, Inc..

Sources: In re: Non-AFFF Firefighter Turnout Gear Marketing, Sales… · Pending MDL Dockets By MDL Number (report date 9/1/2026) · Pending MDL Dockets By District (report date 9/1/2026) · Pending MDLs; full list at the end of this page.

Who the filings say qualifies

No plaintiff fact sheet, master complaint, or class definition has been filed publicly yet, so there is no established eligibility standard for individual claimants. The only document currently defining who is a party is the JPML's August 18, 2026 transfer order, and the plaintiffs it lists are government and institutional purchasers of turnout gear, not individual firefighters.

• Named plaintiffs transferred into MDL 3191 so far are a county, cities, and a fire protection district that purchased turnout gear containing PFAS (County of San Mateo, CA; City of Peabody, MA; City of Rochester, NY; Earlville Community Fire Protection District, IL; City and County of Butte-Silver Bow, MT)
• These plaintiffs sue as purchasers of turnout gear on behalf of proposed nationwide or state classes of other purchasers, not as individuals injured by a specific disease
• A separate action by the Uniformed Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut, brought on behalf of firefighters and firefighter associations, was described by the Panel as related but was not transferred in this order, so its relationship to MDL 3191 is not yet settled
• No public criteria yet exist for an individual firefighter to bring or join a personal-injury claim in MDL 3191; check back once a master complaint or plaintiff fact sheet is filed

Source: JPML Transfer Order, MDL No. 3191 (Aug. 18, 2026), Schedule A.

These are the criteria in the public record, not a promise about any individual case. A law firm evaluates each case on its own facts, and limitations periods vary by state.

Key dates

1. December 11, 2025JPML denies a separate request to expand the AFFF MDL (No. 2873) to include turnout-gear-only claims, calling that 'a step too far towards an MDL unmoored from AFFF claims.' This ruling is cited in the MDL 3191 transfer order as part of the Panel's reasoning for creating a separate MDL. source
2. May 11, 2026Master docket case number 0:26-md-3191 opened in the District of Minnesota for what becomes MDL No. 3191, per the JPML's docket-summary report. source
3. August 18, 2026JPML issues its transfer order centralizing 5 actions (plus related potential tag-along actions) into MDL No. 3191, In re: Non-AFFF Firefighter Turnout Gear Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, before Judge Jeffrey M. Bryan in the District of Minnesota. source
4. September 1, 2026JPML's pending-MDL report lists 8 actions pending in MDL No. 3191 before Judge Bryan in the District of Minnesota. source

Questions people ask

Sources: In re: Non-AFFF Firefighter Turnout Gear Marketing, Sales… · Pending MDL Dockets By MDL Number (report date 9/1/2026) · Pending MDL Dockets By District (report date 9/1/2026) · Pending MDLs; full list at the end of this page.

Track this docket

We re-read the JPML report on the first business day of each month. Get an email when this record changes: case count, status, or a settlement development.

Sources

1. U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, “Pending MDL Dockets by Actions Pending,” monthly reports September 1, 2026 to September 1, 2026. Transferee court: District of Minnesota, Jeffrey M. Bryan.
2. In re: Non-AFFF Firefighter Turnout Gear Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 3191, Transfer Order, U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Accessed September 3, 2026.
3. Pending MDL Dockets By MDL Number (report date 9/1/2026), U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Accessed September 3, 2026.
4. Pending MDL Dockets By District (report date 9/1/2026), U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Accessed September 3, 2026.
5. Pending MDLs, U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Accessed September 3, 2026.
6. Panel Orders, U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. Accessed September 3, 2026.

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