A Colorado jury issued a defense verdict following a six-week trial during which four women alleged their respective cancers were caused by exposure to EtO emitted by the nearby Terumo Blood & Cell Technologies Lakewood plant over the course of several decades. They asked for a $444 million judgment.
Notably, during a years-long nationwide assessment of EtO facility emissions (covered by ELM here), the EPA previously concluded that the fence-line community living next to the Lakewood facility in Jefferson County had an elevated cancer risk linked to EtO exposure.
Terumo, however, argued that the exposure amounts were de minimis, and, just as importantly, it had met or exceeded every applicable state and federal emissions standard, mitigating emissions based on what was known at the time, and had even installed an emissions-control system worth millions, intended to further decrease already-low emissions levels.
Ethylene oxide (EtO) is a chemical used to effectively sterilize products that cannot be sterilized with steam, such as medical equipment and surgical devices. One of 187 hazardous air pollutants the Environmental Protection Agency regulates – EtO has been shown to increase the risk of various cancers within those living or working in “fence-line” communities neighboring EtO plants, which has resulted in more stringent governmental oversight following years of research and outreach (covered by ELM over many years and resulting in amendments to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants) as well as an increasing number of personal injury lawsuits (covered by ELM regularly, including here and here).
After a little over a day of deliberations, the six members of the Colorado jury concluded that Terumo had not been negligent in its handling of EtO emissions from the Lakewood facility, thereby eliminating the need for the jury to consider causation or damages.
There are around roughly 90 commercial EtO sterilizer facilities throughout the United States, with most located in the Midwest, Texas, and the Southeast. The Colorado verdict is the first win for EtO defendants in the United States since when plaintiffs started filing these types of EtO exposure lawsuits in 2018.
Prior to the Colorado jury’s decision, arguably the most publicly visible EtO lawsuit against a commercial sterilizer, which resulted in a verdict for plaintiff in September 2022 (covered by ELM here) — the highest ever granted by an Illinois jury to an individual plaintiff — was venued in Cook County, Illinois, a state in which hundreds of lawsuits have been pending against various EtO facilities.