The government backs using this chemical. LA County residents say it's hurting their community

Seventeen people are suing Sterigenics U.S. LLC, a company that sterilizes medical equipment in Vernon, for allegedly exposing their community to an airborne toxin for decades.

Court documents show that the plaintiffs want a jury trial and seek compensation for past and future medical expenses, funeral costs, lost wages, and the fear and “mental anguish” of being sick or watching a family member die.

The Maywood residents’ lawsuit also asks Sterigenics to:

• keep its emissions “within health-protective standards”;
• immediately notify regulators when their equipment breaks down;
• provide real-time reporting of its emissions to community members; and
• pay additional penalties, to deter the company from committing future violations.

Vernon is a small, industrial city located five miles southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. The plaintiffs are current and former residents of Maywood, an adjoining city that’s predominantly Latino and working class.

In Vernon, Sterigenics runs two facilities and employs 40 people. Every year, they sterilize more than 45 million medical supplies, including surgical kits, syringes, heart valves, and pacemakers. These products then go out to nearly 100 healthcare manufacturers. Sterigenics denies any wrongdoing.

On Thursday, July 18, attorneys for both parties will meet before a judge at L.A. Superior Court for an initial review of case details.

What caused the lawsuit?

The group filed the lawsuit against Sterigenics and its affiliates in March. Residents say the company has knowingly exposed them and their neighbors to unsafe levels of ethylene oxide for decades, without warning them of the potential health risks. Ethylene oxide is a colorless gas that’s central to the sterilization process — it’s also a known carcinogen .

The majority of the case’s plaintiffs have been diagnosed with breast cancer. The others — including a toddler and a man who fell ill when he was in high school — have been diagnosed with leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, stomach cancer, or precancerous conditions. The plaintiffs also include long-term Maywood residents who’ve lost a parent or spouse. All of them have lived less than a mile away from Sterigenics. Most of them still do.

Maywood and Vernon are part of southeast L.A. County, a region that’s been historically plagued with environmental issues, including lead contamination from a now-shuttered battery recycler. Residents also grapple with the impacts of living close to freeways and other industrial facilities , which increases their risk of asthma, cancer, and other illnesses .

In an email, a spokesperson told LAist that the company “empathizes with anyone battling cancer,” but that it’s “confident that it is not responsible for causing the illnesses” in Maywood.

“We will vigorously defend our essential and safe operations against these claims,” the spokesperson added.

What is Sterigenics’ legal history?

Sterigenics and its parent company, Sotera Health, have been hit with hundreds of lawsuits throughout the U.S. in recent years.

In 2022, a jury ordered Sterigenics to pay a woman in Willowbrook, Ill., $363 million . Like many of the plaintiffs in the Maywood case, Susan Kamuda lived near a Sterigenics facility for decades and developed breast cancer. Her son was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Afterward, the companies’ attorneys filed motions seeking a new trial or a reduction in the verdict. A judge denied those motions and upheld the verdict.

The following year, Sterigenics and Sotera paid $408 million to settle 870 additional lawsuits in Illinois for exposure to elevated levels of ethylene oxide. In a Jan. 2023 statement, the companies explicitly denied liability or that emissions from its facilities ever posed any safety hazard to the surrounding communities.

“[T]he time and expense that would have been required to continue to contest hundreds of additional lawsuits through a multi-year process in the Illinois court system led us to conclude that resolving the pending Willowbrook [ethylene oxide] cases would be in the best interest of the Company and its stakeholders,” the statement said.

Months later, in Georgia, days before a case went to trial, Sterigenics and Sotera paid $35 million to settle 79 more claims for exposure to the company’s use of ethylene oxide. Sterigenics and Sotera issued a statement similar to that in the Illinois litigation, saying that the settlement terms explicitly denied liability and that the Atlanta facility emissions ever posed any safety hazard to the surrounding communities.

Still, Sterigenics and Sotera have had some success in court. In a Nov. 2022 case, a jury i n Illinois found that they were not liable for damages . And in Aug. 2023, a court dismissed parts of a lawsuit filed by the New Mexico Attorney General .

Why use ethylene oxide instead of something else?

Some sterilization facilities have closed down in response to ethylene oxide-centered lawsuits. The Food and Drug Administration says that’s an issue for supply chains, because there’s “no viable alternative” to the chemical.

In an email statement to LAist, a spokesperson for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) supported the FDA’s position :

“If there was no [ethylene oxide] available for use on medical devices and equipment, there would be widespread disruption to the availability of sterile medical devices[,] including feeding tubes used in neonatal intensive care units, drug-eluting cardiac stents, catheters, shunts, and other implantable devices.”

The spokesperson said most surgical kits — 95% — are cleaned with ethylene oxide, because other common sterilization methods — which use irradiation — “cannot be used on certain materials.”

What might change?

Notwithstanding those warnings, the EPA has also advised that people who work, go to school, or live near commercial sterilization facilities have a “potentially elevated cancer risk from long-term exposure” — and that children may be more susceptible . According to the agency, that risk “decreases with distance from a facility.”

The Vernon Sterigenics facilities are blocks away from where the Maywood plaintiffs reside. There are also four elementary schools within a 1.5 mile radius.

LAist reached out to the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which is responsible for monitoring and enforcing the region’s air regulations. LAist asked if all the commercial sterilizers in its jurisdiction are currently in compliance with its rules, regulations, and permit requirements. The agency had not yet responded with answers as of publication.

The residents’ lawsuit against Sterigenics does not dispute the importance of maintaining a steady supply of sterilized medical equipment. But it does argue that this work shouldn’t be done at their expense.

“While sterilization of medical equipment has a public benefit,” the lawsuit reads, “it should be performed only with proper control measures (especially when performed next to a densely populated area), and only with full disclosure to the residents being exposed to the chemicals.”

Gary Praglin, a partner at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, is one of the attorneys representing the Maywood residents. He told LAist they’re not available for interviews, citing ongoing litigation.

The EPA expects to issue new rules on ethylene oxide “by the end of 2024,” the agency’s spokesperson added, which “will include requirements to reduce exposures to workers and nearby communities.”