SoClean Ozone Cleaning Devices Damaged Philips CPAP Machines, Class Action Lawsuit Claims

Lawsuit seeks damages for individuals exposed to higher levels of toxic chemicals from the combination of Philips CPAP and SoClean ozone cleaners.

A class action lawsuit claims SoClean ozone cleaning devices worsened problems with Philips CPAP machines, which have been recalled due to a risk that the sound abatement foam may degrade and release toxic particles and chemicals directly into the device’s air pathways.

CPAP machines are used by individuals suffering from sleep apnea, to help keep airways open and prevent lapses in breathing that can be dangerous. While SoClean sells a CPAP cleaning devices that uses ozone to sanitize and kill germs inside the machines, a growing number of lawsuits now allege that SoClean uses unsafe levels of ozone, which may pose potential health risks and other problems.

In a complaint (PDF) filed earlier this month in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, plaintiffs Leonard Bradley and Chinedu Ekweozoh claim that the SoClean ozone cleaning process damages recalled Philips CPAP machines, causing the PE-PUR sound abatement foam to degrade even quicker during regular use.

As a result, the lawsuit claims SoClean users were exposed to more toxic gases released by the degrading foam than other users of the Philips breathing machines, on top of the ozone emitted by the SoClean devices themselves.

The plaintiffs seek class action status for all those who bought SoClean ozone cleaning devices and used them with recalled CPAP machines, joining a growing number of lawsuits now being filed directly against Philips by other consumers.

The class action lawsuit calls for plaintiffs to recover damages both for the cost of their SoClean devices, which they say they would not have purchased if they had known they could damage the CPAP machines they were designed to clean, and the cost of damage to their Philips CPAP devices.

“Each of the Plaintiffs used SoClean Devices to clean their Philips Devices. If Plaintiffs knew that the SoClean Devices would damage their Philips Devices by degrading the PE-PUR Foam, they would have not purchased the SoClean Devices,” the lawsuit states. “Further, the SoClean Devices have caused injury to other property, i.e. the Philips Devices.”

The Philips CPAP machine recall was issued last summer and affected millions of CPAP, BiPAP and ventilator machines sold since 2009, most of which were part of the DreamStation family of products used by individuals suffering from sleep apnea. Due to serious health risks that may be caused by side effects of the CPAP sound abatement foam as it degrades, federal health officials have urged all consumers to stop using the recalled machines for treatment of sleep apnea

At the time of the recall, Philips suggested that use of SoClean and other similar cleaning devices involving ozone and UV light may exacerbate the foam’s degradation. Those claims highlighted an FDA warning about CPAP cleaning products like SoClean issued in February 2021, months before the Philips recall, indicating users were experiencing respiratory complications after using certain ozone gas or ultraviolet (UV) light cleaning devices to disinfect or sanitize machines.

On October 12, SoClean sued Philips, claiming its ozone cleaning devices were being used as a scapegoat for respiratory problems linked to Philips use of toxic sound abatement foam, which it maintains were actually the result of a defective and unreasonably dangerous product design. The SoClean lawsuit alleges Philips is trying to deflect blame to SoClean to cover up what it calls a “glaring design flaw” due to the use of the PE-PUR foam.

Most of the Philips CPAP lawsuits filed by users of the recalled devices only name the manufacturer as a defendant, and those cases are currently centralized in the federal court system before U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Savage in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, as part of an MDL or multidistrict litigation.

With an increasing number of SoClean class action lawsuits, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has been asked to establish a separate consolidation for cases involving the ozone cleaning devices, which is expected to be considered during an upcoming hearing scheduled for January 30, 2022.