3M agrees to pay $6 billion after US military said faulty earplugs led to hearing loss

3M agrees to pay $6 billion after US military said faulty earplugs led to hearing loss. 3M, a company that makes protection accessories, will pay $6 billion to solve a problem. Many people (about 300,000) said that 3M gave bad earplugs to the army. These earplugs made soldiers hurt their ears.

3M said, "We pay money, but we don't say sorry." They will give $5 billion in money and $1 billion in company parts over some years.

The earplugs were used by the army from 2003 to 2015. Veterans said the earplugs were bad and made them lose their hearing and have ringing in their ears.

A company called Aearo made the earplugs. 3M bought this company in 2008. Aearo tried to get rid of its money problems by going to court, but the judge said no.

Because of this problem, 3M will have less money (about $4.2 billion) this year. People who own part of 3M's company are happy because they thought 3M would pay even more money.

This is not the first time 3M has had a big problem this year. Earlier, 3M said it would give a lot of money (up to $10.3 billion) to help make water clean. Some bad chemicals were found in the water.

3M had other problems too. People said 3M knew that these chemicals were bad and made people sick. The chemicals also went into drinking water.

Next year, 3M will stop making these bad chemicals.