A group of personal injury lawyers have again upped the ante in the court fight over a now-shuttered medical device sterilization facility in Chicago’s western suburbs, bringing hundreds more lawsuits and now targeting a food supplier they say bears responsibility for operating the sterilization plant in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Since Aug. 18, the new lawsuits have mounted in Cook County Circuit Court against medical device sterilization company Sterigenics and now, a new defendant, Griffith Foods, which has not had any connection to the sterilization plant for more than two decades.
In a press release announcing the new lawsuits, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said they will file about 600 new lawsuits against the defendants over alleged toxic emissions from the Willowbrook sterilization plant, formerly operated by Sterigenics.
Previously, there had been about 75 such lawsuits pending in Cook County court against Sterigenics.
All of the lawsuits, to date, accuse Sterigenics, its corporate parents and other related entities of emitting the chemical compound known as ethylene oxide (EtO), causing a variety of cancers and other medical conditions in people who lived and worked around Sterigenics’ former facility in Willowbrook.
The plant, which was used to sterilize pallets of key medical devices and surgical tools, has been closed since February 2019, when the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, under Gov. JB Pritzker, ordered the plant to cease operations.
Sterigenics accused Pritzker and the IEPA of acting illegally and unconstitutionally in sealing their facility, and sued. They asserted the state acted illegally, by closing down a business that was never accused of violating emission limits imposed under an operating permit the state itself had approved and renewed for years.
In the meantime, the Illinois General Assembly and Pritzker enacted new EtO emission limits, establishing the most stringent EtO emission limits of any state in the country.
After months of court proceedings, Sterigenics secured a deal with the state to resume operations under terms even more restrictive than those imposed under the new state law. However, state lawmakers, local government officials and a group of activists vowed to continue to fight to keep Sterigenics shut down, regardless of the agreement with the IEPA.
Sterigenics then announced it would not seek to reopen its Willowbrook facility.
The campaign against Sterigenics was just one phase in a nationwide battle to shut down EtO sterilization plants. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and medical device makers and suppliers have voiced strong concerns about such efforts, warning they could lead to medical and surgical device shortages and increase infection risk, jeopardizing the safety of operating rooms and other health care settings throughout the country.
Amid that battle, COVID-19 arrived in the U.S., establishing new demands for sterilized personal protective equipment. Faced with PPE shortages, the FDA applied pressure on local officials to back off their efforts to shutter EtO sterilization plants in Georgia and elsewhere. While sterilization plants reopened in places like Georgia, the Willowbrook plant has remained closed.
However, throughout the regulatory and political battles, a group of Chicago-area personal injury lawyers have pressed forward with dozens of lawsuits against Sterigenics.
Even as court rooms have remained largely closed due to efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, Sterigenics and those plaintiffs’ lawyers have continued to battle, exchanging arguments over the extent of information Sterigenics should be required to reveal to the plaintiffs.
Most recently, Sterigenics has pushed back against the personal injury lawyers’ demands for information concerning Sterigenics’ records companywide, and not just for those concerning the Willowbrook facility.
The court fight, however, has significantly broadened, with the hundreds of new nearly identical complaints.
In addition to the counts against Sterigenics and its related entities, the complaints now include counts against Griffith Foods, a food ingredients maker based in suburban Alsip.
Sterigenics has decried the lawsuits in court filings, asserting the suits should be thrown out because plaintiffs’ claims that the facility created a “public nuisance” have already been dealt with through the state’s action against the company. Sterigenics argued it should not have to “face the same public nuisance claims twice.”
Sterigenics and its Ohio-based parent Sotera Health have spoken out in court filings, arguing the plaintiffs are merely adding defendants in a “transparent ploy” to “enlarge the pool of potential deep pockets.”
The lawsuits assert Griffith holds liability for the EtO emissions, as well, because the company opened the Willowbrook sterilization plant in 1984, and a subsidiary company continued to operate the plant until 1999.
In a prepared statement, Jim Thorne, senior vice president for global strategy and marketing at Griffith Foods, said the Willowbrook plant had been operated by a company known as Micro-Biotrol, which he said was an independently operated subsidiary of Griffith Laboratories International, a company that later became Griffith Foods International.
Micro-Biotrol “provided sterilization services for certain industries including medical equipment, as well as materials in the polymer industry,” according to the statement.
Micro-Biotrol sold the Willowbrook plant to Ion Beam Applications, a Sterigenics predecessor.
Thorne acknowledged Griffith had been named as a defendant in the lawsuits, but said the complaints were filed against Griffith “despite not having any connection to sterilization operations for over 20 years.”
“While we cannot comment on the specifics of the Sterigenics lawsuits, Griffith Foods fully intends to defend its reputation and values as a responsible owner against any claims that allege otherwise,” Griffith Foods said in its statement.
The plaintiffs are being represented by a number of law firms, including a court-appointed executive committee including Romanucci & Blandin; Salvi Schostok & Pritchard; Smith LaCien; Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge; Clifford Law Offices; Tomasik Kotin & Kasserman; The Collins Law Firm; and Miner Barnhill & Galland.
Plaintiffs are also represented by a host of other firms, including Edelson P.C.; Goldberg Weisman Cairo; Power Rogers; Corboy & Demetrio; Winters Salzetta O’Brien & Richardson; Nolan Law Group; Cavanagh Law Group; Motherway & Napleton; Wise Morrissey; Taxman Pollock Murray & Bekkerman; Kralovec Jambois & Schwartz; and Dolan Law Offices.
In their joint press release, attorney Antonio Romanucci, of Romanucci & Blandin, called the lawsuits against Sterigenics “one of the largest and most significant pursuits of justice in the history of Illinois.”
The lawsuits all demand unspecified damages.
In a statement, Sterigenics said: “Sterigenics empathizes with anyone battling cancer, but we are confident that operations at our Willowbrook facility are not responsible for causing the illnesses alleged in any lawsuit. As we have stated previously, we intend to vigorously defend against the plaintiffs’ unfounded and meritless claims.”