CHICAGO (CBS) — A jury within the case in opposition to Sterigenics and its position in a Willowbrook girl’s most cancers discovered the corporate liable and award her $363 million.
Sue Kamuda took the medical system sterilization firm to court docket, claiming emissions from the plant close to her house triggered her most cancers.
The corporate used the carcinogen, ethylene oxide or EO to sterilize medical gear however stated it’s not responsible for Kamuda’s breast most cancers.
The CBS 2 Investigators have been monitoring and exposing claims in opposition to Sterigenics for years.
The corporate used the carcinogen ethylene oxide – or EO – to sterilize medical gear, however Sterigenics claims it’s not responsible for Kamuda’s breast most cancers.
Kamuda is the primary of greater than 700 plaintiffs who blame Sterigenics for making them sick by emitting the cancer-causing toxin into the encompassing neighborhood for many years.
Kamuda testified beneath oath final week that she would have moved out of Willowbrook if she’d recognized concerning the harmful ethylene oxide launched by the Sterigenics plant. She fought again tears whereas on the stand, speaking about being identified with an aggressive type of breast most cancers greater than twenty years after shifting to her house in Willowbrook.
She additionally described her shock after being instructed the plant close to her house had been emitting a recognized toxin that complete time. Kamuda instructed the Daley Middle courtroom jury that shifting into her dream house together with her husband and three youngsters in Willowbrook in 1985 was “in all probability the happiest day” of her life.
However she did not know that very same yr, Sterigenics, moved in as nicely, only a third of a mile from her house.
The Willowbrook plant used EO from 1985 till it was shut down by the Illinois Environmental Safety Company in 2019.
Kamuda was identified with breast most cancers in 2007. She stated it was a shock to her, as a result of she has no household historical past of breast most cancers, and a DNA take a look at confirmed she did not have the breast most cancers inflicting gene.
She underwent a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation; and it wasn’t till 2018 that an EPA examine discovered that folks dwelling close to the Willowbrook plant confronted some the nation’s highest most cancers dangers.
Kamuda stated it was a neighbor who alerted her to the findings and invited her to a neighborhood assembly. She stated she had no concept that Sterigenics had been emitting the poisonous fuel all of these years, and he or she would have moved her household if she had recognized.
On the protection aspect, there are three company defendants – Griffith Laboratories, the unique mum or dad firm; Sterigenics; and Sotera Well being, which bought Sterigenics in 2004.
The protection has stated EO is to not blame for Kamuda’s breast most cancers, and that consultants and research will present that she wasn’t uncovered to sufficient of the poisonous fuel to make her sick.
The CBS 2 Investigators have been exposing allegations made by Willowbrook residents in opposition to this plant for years.
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CBS 2 has crews in court docket and can convey you the decision on CBS2.com as quickly because it occurs.
