Bill to shield Georgia carpet industry from forever chemical lawsuits

ATLANTA, Ga. (WDEF)- A proposed bill regarding who can be sued in the ongoing battle over forever chemicals in Northwest Georgia is garnering some backlash.

Georgia House Bill 211 is sponsored by several representatives from Northwest Georgia, would make carpet companies immune from suits blaming them for the spreading of PFAS chemicals which have numerous health concerns.

The Fletcher children playing in the creek on their property, now known to contain an unsafe amount of the PFAS chemical. (Courtesy: Amber Fletcher)

These companies have recently sued chemical manufacturers such as 3M and DuPont, accusing them of not informing companies such as Shaw and Mohawk of the danger of forever chemicals.

PFAS Georgia, a group advocating for the removal of these chemicals, say they believe this bill will do harm to their cause.

Ben Finley, an attorney working with PFAS Georgia, said, “Our view of House Bill 2-11 is it’s overly broad, it does not speak to what should be the focus of our legislature, which is a total focus on clean air and clean water… The individuals that manufacture distributed PFAS could’ve captured it and destroyed it on the factory floor, but instead have put it into our environment and have caused these kinds of harms.”

We reached out to the representatives who authored the bill but have not heard back.