A Cook County jury on Monday ruled that Sterigenics and two other companies should pay $363 million in damages for exposing a woman and thousands of other Willowbrook residents to dangerous levels of cancer-causing ethylene oxide gas since the 1980s.
The jury reached its verdict after a five-week trial and one day of deliberations. The medical tool sterilization company Sterigenics was accused of releasing the toxic gas from its Willowbrook plant from 1985 to 2019, causing cancer in a woman who lived nearby.
The verdict exceeded the $346 million that lawyers for plaintiff Sue Kamuda asked for in closing arguments Thursday against Sterigenics, parent company Sotera Health and its corporate predecessor Griffith Foods.
The jury awarded Kamuda $38 million in compensatory damages and $325 million in punitive damages. The jury ruled that Sterigenics pay $220 million, Sotera pay $100 million and Griffith pay $5 million.
Kamuda is among more than 700 other people who have sued Sterigenics since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published research in 2018 that showed people living near the plant got cancer at rates nine times above the national average.
Sterigenics’s Willowbrook plant was temporarily shut down by the state in 2019 after authorities detected ethylene oxide nearby. Facing public pressure, Sterigenics closed the plant permanently.
The outcome of this case will likely affect the rulings in the other cases.
In closing arguments Thursday, Kamuda’s lawyers argued that Sterigenics released gas at levels thousands of times above the limits government scientists agreed were safe. But the defendants argued that ethylene oxide gas was never released at dangerous levels, and that scientific research still hasn’t proven a link between the gas and cancer in humans.
After the verdict, Kamuda’s lawyer, Lance D. Northcutt, stated: “We are immensely thankful to the jury for sitting through such a lengthy trial and for providing Sue with the justice she deserves. But this verdict is about more than Sue. It’s about holding these companies accountable.
“There are many more cases to be tried, and we hope Sue’s case sets a precedent that Sterigenics cannot distort science with money, and they should be held liable for gambling with people’s lives.”
