Dupage Policy Journal

A Cook County jury awarded Sue Kamuda damages after the Environmental Protection Agency reported medical tool sterilization company Sterigenics emitted cancer-developing gas from its factories.

“This is just the first of 762 cases that are currently pending against Sterigenics, and the size of this verdict validates the belief that the cancer cluster in the Willowbrook area is a direct result of toxins released into the atmosphere by Sterigenics,” Sen. John Curran said. “What we suspected all along, and what has now been found by a jury, is that Sterigenics was a bad actor that turned a blind eye to the fact that they were slowly poisoning the residents who lived in the vicinity of their facility.”

The EPA reported that Sterigenics produced the hazardous air pollutant ethylene oxide (EtO), Occupational Safety and Health Administration explained it is used to sterilize medical equipment.

Sterigenics is a medical device sterilization company with a facility in Willowbrook, Bloomberg Law reported. The company is facing more than 760 lawsuits from nearby residents who alleged that the company knew of health hazards associated with its emissions but failed to warn the community.

The EPA states on its website that EtO is used to produce chemicals that are used in making products such as antifreeze, detergents, and plastics, and it is also used in the sterilization process of approximately 20 billion medical devices each year. The EPA notes that people who live near a facility that produces or uses EtO could inhale the gas and states that it is a known carcinogen in humans.

“A neighbor stopped me when they found out about it, when the report came out, and said that there was going to be a meeting,” Kamuda told WTTW News. "I didn’t know what ethylene oxide was at that time. That was the first time I ever heard of it."

Plaintiff Kamuda has been awarded $363 million after a jury determined that Sterigenics is responsible for causing her breast cancer, as well as her child’s non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, according to a release. Sterigenics was accused of knowingly emitting unsafe levels of ethylene oxide from its facility.