Cancer Patient Sues Sterigenics Amid Nearly Decade-Long Battle

WILLOWBROOK, IL — A Chicago law firm announced Thursday it has filed a lawsuit against Sterigenics International Inc., for civil battery, negligence and public nuisance for knowingly emitting ethylene oxide.

Sterigenics uses ethylene oxide to sterilize medical equipment and other products. The sterilization process emits ethylene oxide, and a report from the U.S. National Cancer Institute notes, "Exposure to (ethylene oxide) is highly irritating to the eyes, skin and respiratory tract, induces nausea and vomiting and causes central nervous system depression. Ethylene oxide is mutagenic in humans and chronic exposure is associated with an increased risk of leukemia, stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma."

The Chicago based firm, Romanucci & Blandin, LLC and Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge are representing plaintiff Ryan Feeney, a 26-year-old who was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Willowbrook families retained the law firm after a report came out last month, detailing the risks of the ethylene oxide emissions to the community. A report from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which is a division of the CDC, stated, "If measured and modeled data represent typical EtO ambient concentrations in ambient air, an elevated cancer risk exists for residents and off-site workers in the Willowbrook community surrounding the Sterigenics facility. These evaluated risks present a public health hazard to these populations."

“Neither the extent of Sterigenics’ ethylene oxide emissions nor the impact of those emissions on the health of those who live and work in the Willowbrook community was known by the general public until the ATSDR released their report on Aug. 21, and the Aug. 22, 2018 release of the EPA’s 2014 National Air Toxics Assessment,” Antonio Romanucci, principal and partner at Romanucci & Blandin, LLC, said in a release.

The law firm said that according to data from air samples taken by the EPA in 2018, the Willowbrook census tract posts a cancer risk that is 64 times higher than the EPA’s acceptable limits and is in the 99.9th percentile in terms of cancer risk in the country.

The complaint, which has been filed in the Circuit Court of DuPage County, states that Feeney has lived in close proximity of Sterigenics for 22 years and also attended Hinsdale South High School, which is within a one-mile radius of the facility, according to a release from the law firm. Feeney was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2010.

The law firm said in a release Feeney was not aware he was at risk of cancer or that his cancer diagnosis was a result of Sterigenics’ emissions of ethylene oxide until after a confirming report was released from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

“The potential ramifications of this revelation are catastrophic – the EPA has reported that human exposure to ethylene oxide causes cancer, and numerous other serious health risks, such as DNA mutations and birth defects,” Romanucci said in a release. “Ryan Feeney and others who live, work, or have children attending school in and around Willowbrook, including several with cancer or with relatives who have died of cancer, have retained our law firms to investigate the harmful effects of this toxic exposure. Our goal in filing this lawsuit is to hold Sterigenics accountable for their reckless negligence that resulted in the needless and continuous poisoning of men, women and children.”

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