‘It is their fault’ | Bill exempting carpet makers from lawsuits draws opposition

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A north Georgia lawmaker whose district includes some of the state’s major carpet manufacturers - including the world’s largest - wants to give immunity to those companies from lawsuits related to their use of cancer-causing toxins in their production process.

State Rep. Kasey Carpenter (R-Dalton) has introduced the House Bill 211, the PFAS Receiver Shield Act, which would protect companies such as Mohawk Industries, one of the world’s largest carpet manufacturers, from litigation involving PFAS, or “forever chemicals.”

The bill came before the powerful state House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Crossover day in the legislature is Thursday, the last day bills passed by one chamber can make it across the aisle to the other.

Mohawk has already acknowledged using PFAS chemicals in a pending lawsuit, but claims it was unaware that was harmful to people and the environment. Mohawk places the blame on 3M and other chemical companies which supplied the synthetic products, but failed to reveal it was dangerous.

“This legislation seeks to focus the attention on these chemical manufacturers,” Carpenter said Tuesday. “They created these products; they sold them as safe. The federal government agreed that they were safe. At some point, let’s focus the litigation on the bad actors.”

But Ronnie Anderson, who worked for 45 years at another nearby manufacturers, Shaw Industries, said the carpet industry should not have dumped the chemical “out in the water.

“They say it was not their fault,” Anderson said. “Yes, it is their fault.”

Martha Bradford also testified at the hearing. Bradford’s husband worked at a Dalton carpet plant for decades, and both have had multiple health issues, including cancer.

“I don’t support this whatsoever because of a lifetime of what my family has to endure and because of the expenses they’ve had to endure,” she said.

Carpenter himself admitted he has not reviewed all of the documents related to the lawsuits and allegations despite having “thousands of conversations since Erin Brockovich showed up in my county.”

Several other lawsuits have been filed against carpet manufacturers located around Dalton, Georgia, which bills itself as “The Carpet Capital of the World.” The lawsuits allege chemical and carpet manufacturers have contaminated the land and ground water in north Georgia.

Each lawsuit claims the origin of the contamination is from the city of Dalton and the surrounding area, where several carpet manufacturers have operated for decades.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said PFAS is linked to cancer and other serious illnesses. The chemicals are often called “forever chemicals” because they do not break down naturally in the environment.

Carpenter has been joined by four other GOP state representatives from the surrounding area in sponsoring the bill: Jason Ridley from Chatsworth; Steve Tarvin from Chickamauga; Matt Barton from Calhoun; and Mike Camerson from Rossville.

Carpenter said the legislation wouldn’t just make carpet manufacturers immune from litigation.

“It does include carpet manufacturers, obviously,” he said. “I’m from northwest Georgia. It’s a major issue. But the reality is a lot of manufacturers use these products; it’s everywhere. Carpet is the low-hanging fruit for litigation right now, but make no mistake; everybody’s got it in their products.”

Emory University has launched a pilot study testing several hundred north Georgia residents’ blood for PFAS. The study came in direct response to a 2023 Atlanta News First investigation which tested 11 Rome residents for PFAS. The tests revealed nearly all participants’ blood contained higher levels of PFAS than the national median.

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The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released clinical recommendations in in 2022 for people exposed to high levels of PFAS. Depending on the blood test results, some study participants could need more regular health screenings to monitor for potential cancers or other illnesses.

Atlanta News First Investigates’ testings are the first known attempt to measure the impact on people in north Georgia since state regulators discovered elevated levels of PFAS in waterways and drinking water more than eight years ago.

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