Lawyer: 76 suits filed over chemical emissions
Sterigenics plant in Willowbrook likely to face more claims
Six women who worked at Hinsdale South High School for at least 18 years filed a lawsuit against Sterigenics, alleging they contracted cancer because of ethylene oxide emissions from the company’s plant in Willowbrook.
The lawsuit, filed Dec. 26, marked the 76th one filed against the sterilization company since the controversy over the plant’s emissions of the toxic gas began in 2018, said Bryce Hensley, an attorney with the firm Romanucci and Blandin, which a circuit court judge appointed lead counsel for the lawsuits. More lawsuits likely are to come, he said.
Carol L. Hanley, a Clarendon Hills resident who is one of the six to file the latest lawsuit, said she was diagnosed with breast cancer this past August. She now is receiving daily radiation treatments after having a partial mastectomy.
“I’m devastated,” Hanley said of her cancer diagnosis. “It has changed my life completely.”
Hanley said she worked as a French and Spanish teacher from 1980 to 2002 at Hinsdale South, 7401 S. Clarendon Hills Road, Darien, which is less than a mile from the Sterigenics plant in Willowbrook.
She recalled recently how she liked to have the windows open in her classroom because of a lack of air conditioning and, as a sponsor of homecoming activities, she often was outside while the plant was in operation.
Since her surgery last year, she said she cannot walk her two dogs at the same time because her left side is not strong enough.
She did not put up all her Christmas decorations because, she said, she could not carry them down from the second floor. She also has not been able to travel like she would like, she said.
Former Hinsdale South teachers Jeanne ConradDeBroeck, of Lisle; Rose Keppler, of Highland; and Mary Margaret Eskey, Marguerite Vahldieck and former counselor Carol Tufo, all of Naperville, have joined Hanley in the lawsuit.
The complaint states Eskey has a type of lymphoma that affects white blood cells. The other women have all been diagnosed with breast cancer.
Sterigenics’ operations manager and maintenance supervisor, Sotera Health (formerly known as
Sterigenics International) and GTCR, a private investment firm that acquired Sterigenics International in 2011, also are named as defendants in the lawsuit, along with Sterigenics U.S.
In a statement emailed from Sterigenics’ communications firm, Sard Verbinnen and Co., the company said it empathizes with anyone dealing with cancer but that the company is confident it is not responsible for causing the illnesses alleged in any lawsuit.
“We operate safely to sterilize vital medical products and have consistently complied with and outperformed applicable regulations,” the company said. “We intend to vigorously defend against unfounded and meritless claims.”
About 20 law firms are representing people who have filed suits against Sterigenics related to the company’s operations in Willowbrook, Hensley said.
He said that despite the more than six dozen lawsuits that have been filed, it’s unlikely the individual claims will become a class action suit.
“There are too many differences between each individual case,” Hensley said.
The people involved have had different levels of exposure to ethylene oxide during different periods, different illnesses and different treatments, he said. Each case is expected to proceed as a separate personal injury trial with a jury.
“It’s likely more cases will be filed,” Hensley said. “Thousands of people live in the Willowbrook area.”
Ethylene oxide was added to the federal list of carcinogens in 1985. It has been used in an industrial area of Willowbrook since 1984, when Griffith Laboratories built a sterilization facility in the village.
In 1999, a Belgium-based technology firm acquired Griffith MicroScience and Sterigenics International and merged the two companies, according to Sterigenics’ website.
In February 2019, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency closed the Sterigenics facilities after concerns were raised about the plants’ ethylene oxide emissions. This past September, the company announced it would not try to reopen in Willowbrook.
The lawsuits against Sterigenics cite the latest
National Air Toxics Assessment from the U.S. EPA, which in 2018 reported that the Willowbrook area is among several dozen nationwide where the risk of developing cancer from breathing toxic air pollution over a lifetime exceeds agency guidelines.
The lawsuits claim company officials were negligent in their operations at Sterigenics, including failure to supervise and train employees on how to control, monitor and dispose of hazardous materials, including ethylene oxide.
“Our clients seek damages for personal injuries, medical bills, (and) in some cases, lost wages, pain and suffering, mental anguish, disability, disfigurement, reduced life expectancy and loss of normal life,” said Scott Entin, an attorney with Miner, Barnhill and Galland, one of the law firms representing the group of six former Hinsdale South employees.
Although the Sterigenics plant was in DuPage County, the cases will be heard in Cook County because, among other reasons, GTCR is based in Cook and some of the employees named as defendants live in Cook, Hensley said.
To streamline pre-trial motions and filings, the lawsuits have been consolidated in Judge Christopher Lawler’s courtroom in Chicago.
“We have only just begun the discovery process,” Entin said.
The discovery process, which involves obtaining documents, records and testimony, easily can take a year, according to Hensley.
“In some cases, it can take multiple years,” he said.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys say they want to bring their cases to trial as soon as possible. But it remains uncertain on how long that process will take.