Raytheon Technologies faced repeated lawsuits for its air, soil and water contamination in the US

Currently, the drinking water of 244 million (Mn) people have contaminants related to industrial disposal in America⁷. Short-term exposure to TCE (trichloroethylene) leads to liver, kidney, and heart problems while long-term exposure leads to cancer⁴. The TCE level considered safe in drinking water is 0.005 mg/l⁹.

Raytheon Technologies, a US-based company, provides aerospace and defence systems and solutions⁶.

Since the 1990s, Raytheon Technologies has faced over 90 lawsuits in Arizona, California and Kansas, among others, for soil and water pollution, which negatively impacts people's health¹. In Arizona, the company's facility was found to be leaking unsafe levels of TCE in water with TCE used by 50,000 residents in 2006¹. The University of Arizona found an "unusual cluster of health problems" in the area due to Raython's previous pollution¹. The clean-up is expected to end in 2036¹.

In Mountain View, California, the company settled on a clean-up to prevent TCE vapour intrusion from the contaminated soil and groundwater caused by its activities between the 1960s-80s into about 60 buildings². Data collected in 2020 from its remediation activities in Mountain View indicated that TCE was still highly concentrated in wells, at around 1mg/L^3;p9,102.   

The company fails to report on its air pollutants¹². Its business unit, Pratt and Whitney, manufactures aircraft engines and has 50+ facilities ^5,12;p4. The manufacture of aircraft engines uses metal working processes such as grinding and welding¹⁰. These processes produce SO₂ and NO₂, related to the increased risk of lung cancer in humans¹¹. It has facilities in California (San Diego, San Jose and Los Angeles) which are among the most polluted cities^15,13,14. With 13,000+ of its large commercial engines installed globally, Raytheon plays a major role in air pollution caused by planes, which leads to 16,000 premature deaths per year^16,8.

Raytheon's activities have endangered the health of 50,000+ people.