A Cook County jury has declared medical device sterilization company Sterigenics and its current and former parent companies should pay $363 million to a Willowbrook woman who claimed she contracted cancer from breathing emissions released into the air from the company’s now-shuttered sterilization plant in the western Chicago suburb.
The verdict comes at the conclusion of the first trial in a mountain of lawsuits pending in Cook County Circuit Court against Sterigenics over the alleged problems caused by its emissions of ethylene oxide (EtO), a sterilizing agent the company and others like it use to disinfect medical devices for use in surgery and other health care settings.
The verdict included $38 million in compensatory damages and $325 million in punitive damages for plaintiff Susan Kamuda.
Following the verdict, attorney Lance D. Northcutt, of the firm of Salvi Schostok & Pritchard said the legal team representing Kamuda believe the verdict “is about more than just Sue.” Northcutt said he hopes the verdict “sets a precedent” for the long line of cases still pending against Sterigenics and related companies.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Sterigenics said: “We do not believe the jury verdict in this matter reflects the evidence presented in court. Sterigenics is evaluating the verdict and plans to challenge this decision through all appropriate process, including appeals. We will continue to vigorously defend against allegations about our ethylene oxide operations and emissions.”
The Kamuda trial represented the first of potentially hundreds of lawsuits against Sterigenics that could go to trial in coming months or even years, presuming Sterigenics does not first settle with the more than 760 other plaintiffs awaiting their chance to potentially secure similar verdicts.
The lawsuits against Sterigenics have surged into court by the dozens and hundreds since 2018, led by many of Chicago’s top personal injury lawyers. The lawsuits were filed on behalf of people from Chicago’s western suburbs, in and around Willowbrook, who claim they contracted cancer and other illnesses, allegedly from Sterigenics’ EtO emissions.
The lawsuits named Sterigenics as defendant, along with its parent company, Ohio-based Sotera Health, and Alsip-based Griffith Foods, which had initially owned and operated the Willowbrook sterilization plant that would bear the Sterigenics name.
The lawsuits were spurred in large part by a report released in 2018 by the federal Agency for Toxis Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The report asserted Sterigenics’ emissions from the use of EtO had significantly increased the risk of cancer and other maladies in Willowbrook and surrounding communities.
Sterigenics used the Willowbrook plant to sterilize large quantities of key medical devices and surgical tools, including those used in heart surgery, knee replacements and a host of other surgical and other medical procedures.
Sterigenics and others in the medical device industry have asserted the use of EtO is essential to sterilizing medical devices and reducing infection risks in hospitals and operating rooms. They have noted no other sterilization method can replace EtO in safely and properly sterilizing large quantities of medical devices and tools.
The facility, however, has remained shuttered since early 2019, when Gov. JB Pritzker used the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to order the plant closed.
Sterigenics has accused Pritzker and the IEPA of acting unlawfully in closing their plant. They noted no one has ever accused them of violating any emissions limits imposed by either the state or federal government.
In the meantime, Illinois enacted stringent new EtO emission limits, which prompted Sterigenics to abandon the fight to reopen the plant.
Sterigenics fought for years to dismiss the cases, but were rebuffed at every turn.
The company argued throughout that it cannot be made to pay now for emission levels that were explicitly approved by state and federal environmental regulators.
At trial, plaintiffs asserted Sterigenics and its corporate parents and predecessors knew the public health risk of EtO yet continued to use “’excessive and unnecessary’ amounts” of the gas “for decades without warning the community.”
Plaintiffs asserted Sterigenics “underplayed their EtO use in reports to regulators,” allegedly to “fly under the radar and continue making money off this toxic operation.”
They also presented testimony from a former Sterigenics CEO, who served in that role from 201102016. Plaintiffs said the ex-CEO asserted the company knew of the alleged dangers of its use of EtO and “could have reduced emissions … in the early 2000s,” but “never issued directives to tighten up” emissions controls at the Willowbrook plant.
Sterigenics, however, presented evidence they said showed the ethylene oxide in the atmosphere in and around Willowbrook was too low to produce the catastrophic effects alleged by the plaintiffs.
They noted the plaintiffs’ own experts could not say the levels of EtO exposure alleged by the plaintiffs could have caused the breast cancer Kamuda contracted. Further, they noted the experts would not say levels even many times higher than those encountered by Kamuda could have caused her cancer.
Sterigenics further noted that studies published by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) “repeatedly advised and notified the Sterigenics Defendants and other sterilization companies that low levels of ethylene oxide exposure pose no risk to the public.”
Sterigenics said those studies indicated Kamuda would have needed to be exposed to EtO at 1,000 times higher levels than that claimed by Kamuda’s lawyers to cause the cancer she blames on Sterigenics.
It is not known when other cases against Sterigenics may be brought to trial.
Plaintiffs had sought to move forward with the cases collectively. They said the cases could take many years to unwind, all but denying plaintiffs their day in court. However, Cook County Judge Marguerite Quinn denied that effort, agreeing with Sterigenics that each case presented enough differences from others to be tried on its own.
The Sterigenics defendants are represented by attorney Bruce R. Braun and others with the firms of Sidley Austin, of Chicago; Hollingsworth LLP, of Washington, D.C.; and Ropes & Gray, of Chicago.
Plaintiffs are represented in the cases by attorney Patrick A. Salvi II, and others with the firm of Salvi Schostok & Pritchard; J. Timothy Eaton, and others with Taft Stettinius & Hollister; and attorneys with the Collins Law Firm; Miner Barnhill & Galland; Romanucci & Blandin; Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge; and Smith Lacien.
All plaintiffs’ firms are from Chicago, except the Collins firm, which is based in Naperville.