The Minneapolis located 3M company produced the Dual-Ended Combat Arms™ Earplugs which were used by military personnel from the years 2003 to 2015 during fighting and training exercises in order to guard personnel hearing from gunfire and explosions. Hearing issues are one of the most common issues suffered by veterans so hearing defense is a major worry for U.S. soldiers. Based on different situations, the 3M Dual-Ended Combat Arms™ Earplugs were designed to offer two different levels of protection. The dual-ended earplugs have a design that is easily noticeable. As their name implies, they were made of of two outward facing earplugs, one green and one yellow.
When the yellow end was inserted into the ear, this was recognized as Open Fire mode. This mode was designed to offer normal hearing for peak situational alertness. It could allow staff to communicate, accept commands and listen to other important sounds in the combat field whilst continuing to provide protection from top level noises such as gunfire and explosions. This would have been the desired mode in combat situations.
When the green part was placed inside the ear, this was referred to as Constant Protection mode. Constant Protection was designed to stop all sounds more completely in order to provide complete defense. According to 3M, this mode is for high level steady noise situations like those in tracked vehicles and air support. This level could have also been used in many standard practice exercises and environments as well. Alleged Hearing Issues Combat Arms EarplugsManufactured by 3M and its predecessor, Aearo Technologies, Inc, Dual Ended Combat Arms Earplugs, Version 2 (CAEv2) were designed for military use and used widely by thousands of personnel deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq between 2003 to 2015. The CAEV2 was designed to allow for two different protection settings, Weapons Fire mode and Constant Protection mode. The appropriate setting is determined by which side of the plug is inserted inside the ear, yellow means Weapons Fire mode, green means Constant Protection mode. Weapons Fire mode was created to allow for hearing speech and communicating yet maintaining protection from damaging sound levels from gunfire and explosions. The Constant Protection mode blocked all noise more fully which was useful for soldiers operating in track vehicles, in air support or during regular training. Each settings were claimed to stop noise up to a specific level yet in recent legal action, the government has claimed that neither mode of the ear plug complied with the Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) which 3M claimed because of an unreported manufacturing error.
$9.1 million Settlement Between 3M and the U.S. Government During July of 2018, the United States Department of Justice announced that 3M had agreed to pay $9.1 million to resolve allegations that the company knowingly sold the Combat Arms Earplugs v2 to the U.S. military without disclosing errors that hampered the effectiveness of the hearing defense device. earplug lawsuit was initially placed in 2016 under the whistleblower part of the False Claims Act which permits private parties to sue for the federal government whenever they believe that a defendant has represented false claims for government funds. In this issue, the whistleblower was awarded $1,911,000 for their part in the lawsuit.
According to the DOJ press announcement, the settlement took care of claims that 3M violated the False Claims Act by marketing or causing to be sold defective earplugs to the Defense Logistics Agency. Specifically, the U.S. alleged that 3M, and its predecessor, Aearo Technologies, Inc., were aware that the CAEv2 was too short for correct insertion into users’ ears and that the plugs might come loose imperceptibly and therefore didn’t perform well for certain people. It was also claimed that this design error was known to 3M but was not shared with the Department of Defense.
Injuries to Soldiers If the claims against 3M are correct, thousands of personnel could have used error prone plugs that did not protect them as the equipment was supposed to. Based on the claimed design flaw, the plugs could come loose while inside the ear unbeknownst to the soldier allowing damaging sounds to find their way inside the ear. Dangerous noise levels may have serious and permanent effects including partial or total hearing loss, or tinnitus, a ringing inside the ears. Hearing damage is one of the most frequent afflictions suffered by active duty and former service personnel. Tinnitus, which could be debilitating, is just as frequent. According to a research scientist with the VA Portland Healthcare System, last year there were in excess of
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