Military Earplugs Lawsuits

Many United States military veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing of the ears) despite being provided with Combat Arms Earplugs (CAEv2) while serving our great country. It is now being discovered that the CAEv2 earplugs sold and supplied to the government by manufacturing company 3M may have been defective.

3M sold and supplied the government with CAEv2 earplugs between 2003 and 2015. In 2018, 3M agreed to pay over $9,000,000.00 to the government following allegations by a whistleblower that the company defrauded the government through selling earplugs with “dangerous design defects” to the military for “more than a decade.”

According to the allegations, 3M was fully aware when supplying the government with CAEv2 earplugs that the earplugs were too short to be inserted into certain users’ ears and that the earplugs might loosen within the ear. Alarmingly, 3M was not only accused of knowing about the design defects as early as the year 2000 (three full years before the earplugs began to be used by the military), but also of manipulating test results to make the earplugs appear to meet government standards.

Those design defects may have exposed the user’s ear canals to dangerous and potentially damaging loud sounds, such as gunfire or explosions. The results of that exposure could cause hearing loss and/or tinnitus – two conditions the earplugs were supposedly designed to prevent.

If you served in the United States military between 2003 and 2015, and have been diagnosed with tinnitus or hearing loss (whether partial or total), you may be entitled to financial compensation. Please contact BRE Law to discuss your potential legal options.

Posted by: Zach Anderson