A medical device sterilization company has escaped a potentially costly jury verdict, for now, after a Cook County judge declared a mistrial in the first trial in a list of nearly 300 lawsuits over alleged cancer-causing ethylene oxide emissions from a Waukegan sterilization plant.
On Jan. 17, Cook County Judge Frank Andreou declared a mistrial as a jury was entering deliberations in the trial to resolve the legal claims brought by Pamela Knobbe, a Lake County resident, against Isomedix, a medical device and surgical instrument sterilization company.
Isomedix is a subsidiary of Steris, an international medical device company based in Ireland.
J. Eli Wade-Scott
| Edelson P.C.
According to published reports, Steris operated a sterilization plant in Waukegan under the Isomedix brand from 2005-2008.
Knobbe's lawsuit is the first of nearly 275 cases pending against Steris Isomedix to head to trial in Cook County Circuit Court.
Knobbe's complaint is similar to nearly all of the other cases, as she claims she developed breast cancer as a result of breathing air allegedly contaminated by elevated levels of the chemical compound known as ethylene oxide (EtO) allegedly caused by emissions from industrial facilities, including medical device sterilization plants, within a few miles of her home.
The lawsuits involving Isomedix also involved several other Lake County area companies known to have used EtO in either sterilization plants or other industrial settings for decades.
Other defendants named in Knobbe's complaint and those of hundreds of others filed in Cook County court include medical device maker and sterilizer Medline; medical device maker Cosmed; and specialty chemical company Vantage. All of the defendants operated plants utilizing EtO in and around Waukegan.
EtO is used widely in various industries, including many in operation in the Chicago area. In manufacturing, EtO serves as a key building block ingredient for a wide range of products, including antifreeze, recyclable packaging and nearly all products containing fiberglass. Derivatives of EtO area also used to make shampoo and other personal care items, as well as some pharmaceuticals.
Isomedix and other medical device sterilizers have used EtO to sterilizie a wide variety of medical devices and tools, including surgical implants, like pacemakers and catheters, to ensure the do not increase patients' risk of deadly infections in the operating room.
Medical device makers have said EtO is all but essential to ensuring patient safety and preventing deadly infections in surgical patients.
Because of its widespread use, EtO is present in the ambient air throughout much of the Chicago region, according to air pollution measurements conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Companies in the Chicago area and elswhere, however, increasingly have been targeted in recent years for lawsuits from trial lawyers seeking big payouts and relying on government reports indicating long exposure to EtO could increase people's risk of contracting cancer.
In Illinois, the anti-ETO effort began when activists and trial lawyers targeted sterilization company Sterigenics, which operated a sterilization plant in west suburban Willowbrook.
The activists succeeded in persuading state officials to take action against Sterigenics and rewrite Illinois' pollution rules to impose severe limits on EtO emissions, ultimately forcing Sterigenics to pull out of Illinois, even though the company had to that point never violated state or federal EtO emissions limits.
Sterigenics ultimately agreed to pay $408 million to settle more than 870 lawsuits on behalf of people who lived in and around Willowbrook, who claimed that company's EtO emissions had caused cancer.
Another company, Griffith Foods, which formerly operated the Willowbrook sterilization plant, also agreed to pay $48 million to settle claims against them.
Those settlements came after two cases against Sterigenics went to trial. In the first trial, a jury ordered Sterigenics to pay a woman $363 million. In the second trial, however, a jury sided with Sterigenics, declaring the company shouldn't be liable for a different woman's illness.
Nationally, EtO-related actions have resulted in settlements estimated to be worth more than $700 million collectively, according to some published estimates.
Meanwhile, the separate Lake County-related legal actions have continued in Cook County court.
Medline, Cosmed and Vantage all agreed to settle the claims against them, leaving Isomedix and its parent, Steris, as the sole remaining defendants.
Medline's settlement, however, remains in some doubt, as Medline remains locked in court proceedings with an insurer who says it should have no obligation to fund any payout from Medline to the EtO plaintiffs.
Throughout the process, Isomedix has contested the claims brought by Knobbe and other plaintiffs. They have argued, similarly to Sterigenics, that the levels of EtO its plant may have emitted fell within ranges permitted by state and federal authorities.
Further, they argued plaintiffs cannot scientifically support their claims against the company, pointing to evidence indicating atmospheric EtO levels were too low to produce the catastrophic effects alleged by patients.
Isomedix has also sought to contest the settlements reached by the other defendants. They have filed counterclaims seeking to force the other corporate defendants to share a portion of any liability established by a jury at trial or otherwise by the court.
Those counterclaims were put on hold, for now, by Judge Andreou, as the court prepared for trial in Knobbe's lawsuit.
That trial began in early December and continued until Jan. 17, when Andreou declared a mistrial.
The trial was being closely watched by many insiders, who speculated it could result in a massive verdict similar to the $363 million verdict entered against Sterigenics in 2022 or a verdict in favor of the company, which could also set the table for a potential settlement to resolve the cases.
According to a lawyer repreenting Knobbe, the mistrial was declared when the judge determined a juror could not complete deliberations, leaving the jury short of the 12 members required to render a verdict.
J. Eli Wade-Scott, an attorney with the firm of Edelson P.C., of Chicago, told The Record his firm is representing Knobbe and hundreds of other plaintiffs who have filed lawsuits against Isomedix.
He said Knobbe's legal team is gearing up for a re-trial in Knobbe's case, as well as a potential trial in a consolidated proceeding on behalf of five other plaintiffs against Isomedix.
"We look forward to more trials being set against Isomedix and to trying those cases on behalf of our clients," Scott said in an emailed response to questions from The Record.
Scott declined to answer whether a settlement with Steris Isomedix is near or possible at this point.
While some defendants have chosen to settle, "Isomedix has chosen the other path, which is its right," Scott said. "To the extent the company doesn't change its mind, we feel very confident in these cases going forward and look forward to bringing all of our cases to trial."
Knobbe has also been represented by attorneys from the firm of Dovel & Luner, of Santa Monica, California.
Steris and an attorney representing Isomedix in the Knobbe trial did not respond to requests from The Record for comment on the Knobbe trial or the potential for settlement.
Steris disclosed in federal securities regulatory filings in late 2024 that it faces lawsuits from around 275 people in Cook County Circuit Court.
In the filing to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, Steris said it "disputes the allegations" in the lawsuits and "is vigorously defending itself in these matters."
“Nonetheless, management believes that based on the number of cases and the overall cost of defense, a loss is reasonably possible; however, a range of loss cannot be reasonably estimated at this time because the evaluation of each case is highly fact-driven, subject to lengthy court proceedings, and impacted by each plaintiff’s alleged disease, time and proximity of exposure, and other factors. We believe that the ultimate outcome of these pending lawsuits and claims will not have a material adverse effect on our consolidated financial position or results of operations taken as a whole," Steris said in the SEC statement.
During a corporate earnings call in November, Steris CEO Dan Carestio refused to answer questions about the lawsuits' impact on the company and its legal strategy in taking the cases to trial.
According to a published report, Carestio said: “I think it’s best that we continue on our path of not discussing ongoing litigation until there is something more definitive to discuss.”
Isomedix is represented in the case by attorney Philip M. Oliss and others from the firm of Jones Day, of Cleveland and Chicago.