The Minneapolis headquartered 3M company produced the Dual-Ended Combat Arms™ Earplugs that were employed by armed services staff from 2003 to 2015 during fighting and training exercises in order to guard soldier hearing from gunfire and explosions. Hearing problems are one of the most frequent issues suffered by soldiers so hearing defense is a serious worry for American soldiers. Based on various scenarios, the 3M Dual-Ended Combat Arms™ Earplugs were created to provide two different amounts of defense. combat earplugs -ended plugs have a design that is very recognizable. As their name implies, they were made of of two outward facing earplugs, one green and one yellow.
While the yellow part was inserted inside the ear, this was called as Weapons Fire mode. This level was designed to offer normal hearing for peak situational alertness. It would allow staff to communicate, accept commands and listen to other important noises on the battlefield while continuing to provide defense from peak level noises like gunfire and explosions. This would have been the desired level in combat situations.
When the green part was inserted into the ear, this was referred to as Constant Protection mode. Constant Protection was created to stop all sounds more thoroughly in order to provide full protection. Per 3M, this mode is for high-level steady noise situations like those in tracked vehicles and air support. This mode might have additionally been used in several 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) that were created for military usage and used broadly by thousands of personnel deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq from 2003 to 2015. The CAEV2 was designed to allow for two separate protection modes, Weapons Fire mode and Constant Protection mode. The applicable level is determined by which part of the earplug is placed into the ear, yellow for Weapons Fire mode, green for Constant Protection mode. Weapons Fire mode was designed to allow for hearing speech and communicating while maintaining protection from damaging sound levels from gunfire and explosions. The Constant Protection mode blocked all noise more completely that was useful for soldiers operating in track vehicles, in air support or while regular training. Both settings were claimed to stop noise up to a certain level yet in recent litigation, the government has claimed that neither mode of the ear plug complied with the Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) that 3M alleged because of an unreported design flaw.
$9.1 million Settlement Between 3M and the U.S. Government In July of 2018, the United States Department of Justice reported that 3M had agreed to pay $9.1 million to resolve allegations that they knowingly sold the Combat Arms Earplugs v2 to the American military without admitting errors that hampered the effectiveness of the hearing defense device. The lawsuit was initially placed in 2016 under the whistleblower part of the False Claims Act that permits private citizens to sue on behalf of the federal government whenever they believe that a defendant has made incorrect claims for government funds. In this case, the whistleblower was awarded $1,911,000 for their part in the lawsuit.
According to the DOJ press release, the settlement resolved claims that 3M violated the False Claims Act by marketing or causing to be sold defective earplugs to the Defense Logistics Agency. Specifically, the United States alleged that 3M, and its predecessor, Aearo Technologies, Inc., knew the CAEv2 was too short for correct insertion into users’ ears and that the plugs could loosen imperceptibly and therefore didn’t perform well for certain people. It’s also claimed that this design defect was known to 3M but wasn’t shared with the Department of Defense.
Harm to Soldiers If the allegations against 3M are correct, many servicemen could have used error prone earplugs that did not protect them as the equipment was supposed to. Based on the claimed design error, the plugs could come loose while in the ear unbeknownst to the soldier allowing damaging noise to find their way inside the ear. Harmful sound levels may have serious and lasting 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
|