said in a statement
that settling the remaining Illinois lawsuits was in the best interest of its owners. It attributed the decision to “years of biased media coverage in the greater Chicago area,” the cost of appealing a record jury verdict and the time and money needed to defend hundreds of other claims. Lawyers for Sue Kamuda, winner of the megamillions verdict against Sterigenics, highlighted emails and documents showing the company knew long ago that ethylene oxide is extremely dangerous. Sterigenics and previous owners of the Willowbrook plant delayed installing pollution-control equipment and undermined federal regulations that would have required improvements at sterilization facilities, the documents showed.
With attorneys Jennifer Cascio, left, and Patrick Salvi II, breast cancer survivor Sue Kamuda attends a news conference at Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard P.C. on Sept. 19, 2022, in Chicago. Sterigenics, its parent company and a corporate predecessor should pay $363 million in damages for exposing the Willowbrook woman and thousands of others to cancer-causing ethylene oxide pollution, a Cook County jury decided.