In the legal case In re Agent Orange Product Liability Litigation of the early 1980s, US military veterans of the Vietnam War sued the US chemical companies that had produced the herbicide Agent Orange, and those companies settled with US veterans out of court. Agent Orange contains dioxin, a chemical later shown to disrupt the hormone system of the body and to cause cancer. As veterans returned to the US from Vietnam, scientists further confirmed that exposure to Agent Orange caused a variety of cancers in veterans and developmental problems in the veterans' children. The veterans and their families held the chemical manufactures of Agent Orange liable for their injuries and the injuries to their children. The chemical companies settled the case out of court in 1984 for $180 million, to be used for medical expenses or compensation for death relating to veterans' exposure to Agent Orange. Agent Orange's use in the Vietnam War affected close to ten million people in the US, including members of the US military directly exposed to it, and their children conceived years after direct exposure.

On 30 August 2001, approximately 80,000 people living in West Virginia and Ohio states filed a class-action lawsuit, alleging that DuPont’s Washington Works Plant in Washington, West Virginia, had contaminated the local water supplies with perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, in Jack W. Leach, et al. v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (2005), hereafter Leach v. du Pont. PFOA is a human-made chemical, part of the PFAS family, more commonly called forever chemicals. PFOA plays a fundamental role in the production of materials like Teflon and nonstick and stain-resistant consumer products. The plaintiffs of the case alleged that DuPont failed to contain or warn the residents about the dangers of PFOA, which can include hormone disruptions, cancers, and pregnancy complications. The case led to a settlement in 2005 in which DuPont agreed to pay 70 million US dollars in class benefits, and also prompted changes in policy designed to protect individuals and communities from the dangers of PFOA and other forever chemicals.