Willowbrook Woman's Sterigenics Suit Headed To Trial

WILLOWBROOK, IL – A 37-year Willowbrook woman who alleges pollution from the old Stergenics plant caused her breast cancer will get her case heard soon, her lawyer said Thursday.

The woman, Sue Kamuda, lived about one-third of a mile from the Willowbrook Sterigenics plant. The trial is set to start Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court.

The trial is the first against Sterigenics, a medical device sterilization company, Kamuda's attorney, Patrick Salvi II, said in a news release. More than 760 cases are pending against Sterigenics in the Cook County court, he said.

"The volume of individual cases filed shows the devastating impact Sterigenics had on the Willowbrook community," Kamuda said in a news release. "But this is not about a large number of lawsuits, this is about individual people – like Sue – who have suffered unimaginable physical, emotional and financial hardships."

Kamuda was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and underwent surgery and several rounds of chemo to treat her illness, the news release said. Her family had no history of breast cancer, her lawyer said.

Kamuda's three children attended school within a mile of the plant, which closed a few years ago.

Her son, Brian Kamuda, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2021, the release said. His case will be tried later.

Federal officials began investigating Sterigenics in 2017 after Willowbrook and nearby towns were identified on a national map of health hazards from pollution involving toxic chemicals.

In April 2021, the EPA's inspector general released a report critical of the agency's handling of Sterigenics. It alleged the agency withheld information from residents about ethylene oxide emissions from Sterigenics. Ethylene oxide is labeled a cancer-causing pollutant.

In a late 2019 email to Patch, a Sterigenics spokesman denied the allegations in lawsuits against the company.

"Sterigenics empathizes with anyone battling cancer," spokesman Bryan Locke said at the time. "Sterigenics is confident that it is not responsible for causing the illness. We operate safely to sterilize vital medical products and have consistently complied with and outperformed applicable regulations. We intend to vigorously defend against unfounded and meritless claims."