Commitments and Contingencies (Details) Share data in Millions, unless otherwise specified	6 Months Ended		6 Months Ended		6 Months Ended				6 Months Ended					1 Months Ended	6 Months Ended		6 Months Ended										6 Months Ended
	Jun. 30, 2011 Respirator Mask/Asbestos Litigation USD ($) Claims Claimants	Dec. 31, 2010 Respirator Mask/Asbestos Litigation USD ($) Claimants	Jun. 30, 2011 Respirator Mask/Asbestos Litigation - State of West Virginia	Jun. 30, 2011 Respirator Mask/Asbestos litigation - Excluding Aearo Technologies USD ($)	Jun. 30, 2011 Insurance Disclaimer Action USD ($) Insurers	Jun. 30, 2011 Respirator Mask/Asbestos Litigation - Aearo Technologies USD ($)	Jun. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Remediation USD ($) Y	Dec. 31, 2010 Environmental Matters - Remediation USD ($)	Jun. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Regulatory Activities PFC	Jun. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Regulatory Activities Alabama Defendants DisposalSites Y	Jun. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Regulatory Activities Minnesota DisposalSites	Jun. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Litigation Morgan County, Alabama Claimants	Jun. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Litigation Lake Elmo, Minnesota USD ($)	Jun. 30, 2009 Environmental Matters - Litigation New Jersey USD ($) Defendants DisposalSites	Jun. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Other Environmental Liabilities USD ($) Y	Dec. 31, 2010 Environmental Matters - Other Environmental Liabilities USD ($)	Jun. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Other Environmental Liabilities Minnesota DisposalSites	Jun. 30, 2011 Employment Litigation - Whitaker lawsuit USD ($) Claimants Y Claims	Jun. 30, 2011 Employment Litigation - Garcia lawsuit Claimants Y SalaryGrade	Jun. 30, 2011 EEOC age-discrimination charges Claimants	Jun. 30, 2011 EEOC age-discrimination charges Minnesota, Texas and California Claimants	Jun. 30, 2011 EEOC age-discrimination charges Minnesota Claimants	Jun. 30, 2011 Commercial Litigation - Cogent Inc. Delaware Court of Chancery Claims	Jun. 30, 2011 Commercial Litigation - Cogent Inc. Los Angeles Superior Court Claims	Jun. 30, 2011 Commercial Litigation - Avery Dennison Patents	Jun. 30, 2011 Commercial Litigation - Meda AB USD ($)	Jun. 30, 2011 Commercial Litigation - Acolyte Biomedica Ltd. GBP (£)
Loss contingencies
Accrued loss contingency reserve	$ 113,000,000	$ 126,000,000				$ 31,000,000	$ 30,000,000	$ 24,000,000							$ 80,000,000	$ 90,000,000
Insurance receivables	121,000,000	122,000,000			14,000,000		15,000,000	15,000,000
Number of individual claimants	2,200	2,148
Number of total claims settled and taken to trial	9
Subset of the number of total claims settled and tried to verdict	7
Number of total claims settled and tried to verdict	8
Number of total claims dismissed and being appealed	1
Number of additional defendants			2
Liability for asbestos and environmental claims gross-excluding Aearo Inc.				82,000,000
Number of insurers who filed a declaratory judgment action against the company					2
Number of the entity's insurers named in the action, low end of range					60
Annual fee paid to Cabot to retain responsibility and liability for products manufactured before July 11, 1995						400,000
Number of PFCs the EPA has proposed to have public water suppliers monitor									6
Number of landfills to be tested by the entity pursuant to a Memorandum of Understanding with the EPA										3
Wastewater treatment plant sludge containing PFCs surrounding Decatur facility (in years)										20
Number of sites where remediation work will continue into 2011											3
Total number of named plaintiffs, second purported class action												3
Number of subsidiaries of Toray Industries, Inc. allegedly involved in wastewater treatment plant sludge containing PFCs environmental litigation										2
Claim asserted for alleged contamination, low end													50,000
Lower end of range of number of companies served with a complaint														250
Number of companies, in addition to Maxus Energy, Tierra Solutions and Occidental Chemical involved in an enforcement action														2
Total cost of clean-up proposed by the EPA, of which the Company believes its applicable share, if any, is likely to be a fraction of one percent														1,000,000,000
Number of commercial waste disposal facilities used														2
Number of years remediation payments expected to be paid for applicable sites, high end of range							20								5
Number of former disposal sites with PFC present in soil and groundwater in Washington County Minnesota																	2
Current employees filing lawsuit																		1	1	1
Former employees filing lawsuit																		1	5	6	3	2
Threshold age for members of class action (in years)																		46	46
Punitive damages, statutory limit per claimant																		8,500
Number of additional named plaintiffs																		4
Number of claims dismissed and settled																		1
Total number of named plaintiffs																			6
Approximate number of current or former employees who have signed "opt-in" forms																			130
Upper end of salary grade level involved in lawsuit																			18
Threshold age for federal protection from age discrimination																			40
Number of claimants not involved in Garcia lawsuit																				1
Number of new lawsuits filed																							3	6
Number of Cogent, Inc. shares held by subsidiary shareholders that have asserted appraisal rights																							5.8
The estimated minimum amount the lawsuit seeks to recover																										200,000,000
Number of Avery patents for which 3M seeks a declaratory judgment																									2
Damages sought by plaintiff																											£ 40,000,000