A Cook County jury says medical device sterilizer Sterigenics should bear no liability for cancer in a woman who lived near Sterigenics' former Willowbrook plant for decades.
That verdict, delivered Nov. 19, came at the close of the second trial among hundreds of cases still pending against the company over its emissions of the chemical known as ethylene oxide (EtO).
And it comes in sharp contrast to a different jury’s decision to order Sterigenics and other related defendants to pay $363 million to a different Willowbrook woman, who leveled virtually the same legal claims against the Sterigenics defendants.
“The jury’s verdict in this matter reflects the careful consideration and understanding of the science and other evidence presented at trial,” a Sterigenics spokesperson said in a prepared statement, following the verdict. “Sterigenics remains committed to our mission of safeguarding global health.
“As we have done consistently throughout our history, we will continue to operate in compliance with applicable rules and regulations to ensure the safety of our employees, the communities in which we operate and patients around the world.”
The jury rendered the verdict in Cook County Circuit Court in the lawsuit brought by plaintiff Teresa Fornek, formerly of Darien, and now of Burr Ridge, according to court documents.
Fornek was among the first of more than 760 people to sue Sterigenics, blaming the company for a range of cancers and other illnesses among people who live and work in and around suburban Willowbrook.
The lawsuits against Sterigenics have surged into court 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 Toxic 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 and its predecessors used the Willowbrook plant from the mid-1980s until 2019 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.
Fornek filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court in 2018, claiming the company’s use of EtO caused the cancer she suffered.
Since the first lawsuits were filed, Sterigenics has consistently argued its emission levels never violated the terms of permits issued by both the state and federal governments.
The company asserts the lawsuits represent attempts to make the company pay potentially billions of dollars, with much of the funds going to trial lawyers, for emission levels that were explicitly approved by environmental regulators.
The company has also argued plaintiffs cannot scientifically support their claims against the company, as the company pointed to evidence that showed EtO levels in and around Willowbrook was too low to produce the catastrophic effects alleged by plaintiffs.
Sterigenics has 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 plaintiffs would have needed to be exposed to levels of EtO 1,000 times higher than that claimed by plaintiffs to cause the cancers they blame on Sterigenics.
Despite these defenses, a jury in September ordered Sterigenics and its co-defendants to pay $363 million to plaintiff Susan Kamuda.
Kamuda’s case was the first to go to trial against Sterigenics.
Sterigenics has challenged that verdict, asserting it was based entirely on juror’s passions and biases, and was not based on science or the law. The company also asserts the jury verdict was excessive, and should be thrown out.
Fornek’s trial marked the second time the Sterigenics defendants mounted their defenses in court.
This time, jurors sided with the company, finding the company should not be held responsible for Fornek’s cancer.
It is likely roles will be reversed in post-trial motions in Fornek’s case, vs Kamuda’s, as Fornek’s lawyers are likely to similarly claim the jury erred in its verdict and will seek a reversal of the verdict or a new trial.
Fornek has been represented by attorneys Brian LaCien and Todd A. Smith, now of the firm of Smith LaCien, of Chicago, and formerly of the firm of Power Rogers & Smith, of Chicago.
Sterigenics has been represented by the firms of Sidley Austin, of Chicago; Hollingsworth LLP, of Washington, D.C.; and Ropes & Gray, of Chicago.