3M Co.'s methods for testing whether its military combat earplugs caused hearing loss are “problematic,” said a federal judge overseeing users’ class action.
But the plaintiffs’ separate testing approach also “does not measure or value an individual’s current hearing loss status,” Judge Casey Rodgers of the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida said in a filing Friday.
Neither side accounted for “specific causation,” she said.
Data from tests used to evaluate hearing loss in combat veterans and contractors who used earplugs developed by a bankrupt 3M subsidiary should be taken with a grain of salt should they ...