Ark. Defendants Answer Silica Complaint and Reject Co-Defendants’ Cross-Claims

PINE BLUFF, Ark. — 3M (NYSE: MMM) and other silica-related firms named in a personal injury suit by a former Arkansas industrial painter and sandblaster in October have begun to answer the complaint and disavow liability under any and all counterclaims asserted by their co-defendants.

Standard Sand & Silica’s Dec. 10 answer is the latest to be filed in the federal lawsuit filed by Hershel Lee Robinson, alleging that silica producers and respirator manufacturers failed to protect him from irreversible lung damage during his working career.

Robinson filed his complaint Oct. 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern …