Fifty-three people who worked in an Atlanta-area warehouse that stored medical devices sterilized by ethylene oxide (EtO) filed suit this week against Sterigenics and its parent company over exposure to the gas. The plaintiffs or their families claim that long-term EtO exposure to the sterilized devices, which they unloaded, handled, warehoused and distributed, caused multiple deaths, cancer, […]
Pressure mounts to reopen Sterigenics Ga. plant to address coronavirus pandemic
Under pressure from the FDA, officials in Cobb County, Ga., may allow Sterigenics to reopen a medical device sterilization plant sooner than expected to address the coronavirus pandemic. Oak Park, Ill.-based Sterigenics temporarily shut the Atlanta plant on August 26 to voluntarily upgrade emission controls for ethylene oxide (EtO), the carcinogenic gas it used to […]
Sterigenics asks to reopen Georgia EtO plant to fight coronavirus
Sterigenics has asked Cobb County, Ga. officials for permission to reopen its medical device sterilization plant to aid in the fight against the coronavirus. Oak Park, Ill.-based Sterigenics temporarily shut the Atlanta plant on August 26 to voluntarily upgrade emission controls for ethylene oxide (EtO), the carcinogenic gas it used to sterilize medical devices. In September, […]
Medtech sterilization business faces battles on many fronts
As the EPA prepares to issue new regulations for the carcinogenic sterilant gas ethylene oxide, the industry must decide whether to invest in expensive emissions-control upgrades, switch sterilization processes or — in the case of some small sterilization companies — exit the business. Nancy Crotti, Managing Editor In the next few months, the U.S. Environmental […]
Sterigenics accused of moving $1.3 billion to avoid ethylene oxide payouts
Attorneys for Illinois plaintiffs suing Sterigenics claim the company deliberately shuffled $1.3 billion in assets to investors to avoid compensating people sickened by exposure to ethylene oxide (EtO). The attorneys representing 75 people who lived or worked near the company’s now-shuttered Willowbrook, Ill., medtech sterilization plant filed an amended complaint in Cook County, Ill. on […]
Medline Industries temporarily halts EtO sterilization at Illinois plant
This article has been updated with a comment from Medela. Medline Industries has temporarily closed its Waukegan, Ill., medical device sterilization operation to install nearly $10 million in emissions upgrades. The privately owned company uses the carcinogenic gas ethylene oxide (EtO) to sterilize its own and other companies’ devices at the plant. Medline did not […]
Sterigenics’ legal troubles mount in Illinois
Nearly two dozen new lawsuits were filed against Sterigenics this week over its now-shuttered ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization plant in Willowbrook, Ill., according to a law firm representing some of the plaintiffs. That brings the total of such lawsuits to nearly 75, noted Chicago personal injury lawyer Antonio Romanucci, court-appointed lead counsel from among five firms involved in the […]
Congressional task force to press EPA on ethylene oxide emissions standards
Congressmen from Illinois and Georgia have formed a bipartisan task force to pressure the Environmental Protection Agency to place stricter limits on ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions from medtech sterilization and other industrial uses. Illinois Democrat Rep. Brad Schneider and Georgia Republican Rep. Jody Hice put together the task force in support of a bill Schneider introduced in […]
Federal agencies will control the fate of medtech’s most-used sterilization method
The fate of the medical device industry’s most widely used sterilization process lies in the hands of the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA gave the medtech industry mixed signals in November about the gas used to sterilize billions of devices annually. The agency said it might seek to cut industrial emissions of ethylene oxide (EtO) […]
How can medtech overcome its ethylene oxide sterilization crisis?
Until recently, the debate over the widely used sterilant gas ethylene oxide (EtO) has been largely waged on state and local levels in the U.S. But now it’s going public at the federal level. From city council chambers to judges’ chambers, through volleys of press releases and the clamor of citizen picket lines, the stream of information […]
Battles over sterilization plants intensify as industry warnings about shortages grow
The fight over plants that use ethylene oxide (EO) to sterilize medical devices is escalating across the country. New proposed legislation in Illinois would ban the use of the carcinogenic gas by sterilizers by 2021 and by hospitals by 2022, according to reports by the Chicago Tribune. A legislative hearing on the bill is scheduled for […]
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