In the third quarter, we continued our top-line growth momentum with net sales up 40% over last year.
Adjusted earnings were $0.38 per share excluding $0.19 of unusual costs.
In Q3 2020, the adjusted earnings per share were $0.55 and excluded $0.09 of unusual costs.
At the end of the third quarter, we had reduced our injury rate by 40% since the start of the year, an all-time record for Neenah.
Starting with the top-line, demand for our products was extremely strong and we delivered record sales of almost $270 million, up 40% from last year and up 22% excluding the Itasa acquisition.
Lastly, we experienced unforeseen flood damage at our Pennsylvania facility related to Hurricane Ida, impacting results by approximately $0.06 per share.
In the third quarter, the net impact of selling prices and raw material cost reduced operating margin by over 300 basis points and earnings per share by over $0.35 per share versus the prior year.
Over the last few months, we have reformulated over $200 million of annual sales, demonstrating the agility and material science know-how we have at Neenah and a key value we bring to our customers.
Additionally, we streamlined our product portfolio to simplify operations and improve our cost position, including over a 30% reduction of grades in our Fine Paper and Packaging business.
Under Bill's leadership, we have strengthened our corporate governance and increased our board diversity with 50% of our board identifying as women or under represented minorities.
The overall impact of that pricing acceleration for the third quarter was $8 million over 2020.
In terms of input cost increases, during the third quarter, we saw input costs rise even higher than our expectations to about $17 million over the prior year, of which we were able to offset about half directly with our pricing initiatives.
For the fourth quarter, we're expecting an input cost increase of over $20 million versus 2020.
We're now expecting an over $40 million increase of input costs for the full year of 2021 versus last year.
Overall, the mix effect for the quarter was an unfavorable $4.5 million.
Recall, we expect this action to save us approximately $78 million a year beginning in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Consolidated sales reached $268 million, up $77 million from last year's comparable quarter.
Itasa accounted for $36 million of sales in the quarter.
Adjusted earnings were $12.7 million compared to $15.9 million in last year's third quarter.
The primary driver of the variance was the favorable pricing of $8 million, offset by input cost increases of $17 million, netting an unfavorable $9 million, whereas Julie mentioned, a 300 basis point impact on margins or about $0.35 a share.
Technical product sales were $173 million, up 46% from 2020 and up 15% excluding Itasa.
Adjusted earnings were $10.8 million, down from $13.3 million last year, reflecting the impact of raw material cost increases along with labor and raw material availability.
Fine Paper and Packaging sales were $95 million, up 32% from last year's level and above our original expectations of recovery, reflecting the strength of the packaging and consumer business.
Adjusted earnings were $6.6 million from the quarter, up from last year's $6 million with pricing offsetting about 75% of the input cost increases.
While year-to-date cash flow from operations of $40 million was down from the $80 million recorded for the first nine months of last year, the difference was primarily due to working capital, reflecting the strong top-line.
Trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA reached $122 million as of September 30 compared to the $101 million we recorded last calendar year as we see the benefits of our continued growth and the impact of the Itasa acquisition.
As a result of the strong EBITDA growth and free cash flow, adjusted net leverage was 3.4 times at quarter end and is expected to drop a bit by year end, absent any other actions.
Year-to-date, capex was $19 million versus $12 million last year.
We're expecting capex to end up in the low-to-mid $30 million range as safety, growth and cost reduction initiatives are implemented in Q4.
In addition to returning cash to shareholders through our strong dividend, during the quarter, we bought back 71,000 for $3.4 million at an average price of $47.85 per share.
Additionally, the board has authorized a $0.02 annual increase to the dividend beginning in the fourth quarter.
Our dividend remains critically important and we're pleased to have raised the dividend every year for the last 11 years.
SG&A was $26.1 million versus $19.1 million last year.
Itasa accounted for about $4 million of the increase.
While we typically expect our full year normalized tax rate to come in around the low-to-mid 20s as a percentage of pre-tax income, the 2021 full year rate is expected to be near 20% when considering the magnified benefit of research credits in the current year.
Our effective income tax rate was 48% of pre-tax book income in the third quarter 2021 as compared to 23% in the third quarter of last year.
So for the fourth quarter, our seasonally weakest quarter, we now expect the impact of input cost to be over $20 million above last year, of which we expect to offset about two-thirds directly with our pricing initiatives.
To sum it all up, as the year stands now, we expect input costs for the full year to be up over $40 million, of which we'll have offset about half directly with pricing.
First, demand for our filtration products is very strong with top-line up year-to-date over 25% from 2020 and 20% from 2019 levels, continuing a trend of record-breaking performance.
This investment will support our growth expectations for the business, which historically has been around 8% annually.
Unlike plastic-based tape, this product breaks down along with the box during the recycling process, making the product 100% recyclable and unique to the market.
Last but not least, we celebrated a record quarter in our packaging business, up almost 20% over pre-pandemic levels.
In summary, we have focused efforts to drive significant value as we close out this year and launch into 2022, including net pricing actions, which we expect will offset the 2021 recovery shortfall of approximately $20 million; a full year of our Itasa acquisition valued at an additional $5 million of EBITDA in 2022; closure of our Appleton facility, which will generate over $6 million of incremental EBITDA next year; and focused organic investment, innovation and M&A efforts in our targeted growth platforms.
Our goal is to grow the top-line by 5% and earnings by 10%, driving EBITDA margins in excess of 15%, while generating investment returns above our cost of capital.

Summary:
In the third quarter, we continued our top-line growth momentum with net sales up 40% over last year.
Adjusted earnings were $0.38 per share excluding $0.19 of unusual costs.