Commitments and Contingencies (Details) (USD $)	9 Months Ended		9 Months Ended		9 Months Ended				9 Months Ended					1 Months Ended	9 Months Ended		9 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2011 Respirator Mask/Asbestos Litigation Claim Claimant	Dec. 31, 2010 Respirator Mask/Asbestos Litigation Claimant	Sep. 30, 2011 Respirator Mask/Asbestos Litigation - State of West Virginia	Sep. 30, 2011 Respirator Mask/Asbestos litigation - Excluding Aearo Technologies	Sep. 30, 2011 Insurance Disclaimer Action Insurer	Sep. 30, 2011 Respirator Mask/Asbestos Litigation - Aearo Technologies	Sep. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Remediation Y	Dec. 31, 2010 Environmental Matters - Remediation	Sep. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Regulatory Activities Y PFC	Sep. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Regulatory Activities Alabama Defendant DisposalSite Y	Sep. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Regulatory Activities Minnesota DisposalSite	Sep. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Litigation Morgan County, Alabama Claimant	Sep. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Litigation Lake Elmo, Minnesota	Jun. 30, 2009 Environmental Matters - Litigation New Jersey Defendant DisposalSite	Sep. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Other Environmental Liabilities Y	Dec. 31, 2010 Environmental Matters - Other Environmental Liabilities	Sep. 30, 2011 Environmental Matters - Other Environmental Liabilities Minnesota DisposalSite
Loss contingencies
Accrued loss contingency reserve	$ 105,000,000	$ 126,000,000				$ 30,000,000	$ 29,000,000	$ 24,000,000							$ 80,000,000	$ 90,000,000
Insurance receivables	119,000,000	122,000,000			14,000,000		15,000,000	15,000,000
Number of individual claimants	2,190	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.				75,000,000
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 years after phase-out decision in May 2000 that the Company stopped manufacturing and using vast majority of perfluorooctanyl compounds									2
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