Ethylene Oxide Cancer Lawsuit: Georgia Sterilizer Cases and Who Qualifies

Ethylene oxide (EtO) is a gas used to sterilize medical devices that cannot be heat sterilized. According to EPA, commercial sterilizers use EtO on about 50 percent of all medical devices in the U.S. The problem is what escapes. EtO released from stacks and leaks can drift into surrounding neighborhoods.

According to the National Cancer Institute, lymphoma and leukemia are the cancers most frequently reported to be associated with occupational exposure to ethylene oxide, and stomach and breast cancers may also be associated.

The lawsuits say sterilizer operators released EtO for decades, knew or should have known it endangered nearby residents and workers, and did not adequately control emissions or warn anyone. Claims typically include negligence, public and private nuisance, and in some cases wrongful death. The companies deny that their emissions caused anyone's cancer and point to their permits and investments in emissions controls. These are individual personal injury cases, a type of mass tort, not a class action.

Sterigenics in Cobb County (Smyrna area, near Atlanta)

Sterigenics, owned by Sotera Health, operates a sterilization facility in Cobb County. In October 2023, Sterigenics paid $35 million to settle 79 Georgia ethylene oxide exposure claims, an average of about $443,000 per person, while roughly 400 more lawsuits remained pending. The company denied liability. In late 2025, the Georgia Court of Appeals reinstated eight toxic tort cases against Sterigenics that a trial court had dismissed over expert testimony, keeping the Cobb County litigation alive.

BD and C.R. Bard in Covington

BD acquired C.R. Bard in 2017 and with it a sterilization plant in Covington, east of Atlanta. Hundreds of residents have sued. In the first Georgia EtO case to reach trial, Gary Walker, a retired truck driver who made regular pickups at the plant and lived about a mile and a half away, said EtO caused his non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which required chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant. On May 2, 2025, a Gwinnett County jury found the companies liable and awarded him $20 million in compensatory damages. The jury then voted an additional $50 million in punitive damages but could not agree on whether the companies intended to cause harm, and a mistrial was declared on that phase; the $20 million compensatory verdict remained intact. A BD executive testified that the company had invested more than $55 million in emissions controls at Covington since 2017.

Kendall Patient Recovery in Augusta

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Kendall Patient Recovery (KPR US), a sterilization facility in Augusta that has been the target of EtO lawsuits, announced in March 2026 that it would permanently close, affecting more than 200 workers.

As of September 2026, there is no federal MDL and no global settlement for Georgia EtO claims. Cases are proceeding individually in state courts, mainly in Cobb and Gwinnett counties, with rulings on expert evidence shaping which cases survive. The Walker verdict showed that a jury will accept the causation link for a nearby, long-exposed resident, while the reinstatement of the Sterigenics cases on appeal kept hundreds of Cobb County claims moving.

The Illinois litigation is the clearest guide to where things can end up. After a Cook County jury awarded $363 million in September 2022 to a woman who developed breast cancer near the Sterigenics plant in Willowbrook, Sterigenics agreed in January 2023 to pay $408 million to resolve more than 870 lawsuits over that plant. The Willowbrook plant had already closed in 2019.

Regulation is moving the other way. EPA's March 14, 2024 rule for commercial sterilizers aimed to cut EtO emissions by more than 90 percent nationwide and required continuous emissions monitoring. In January 2025, a presidential exemption process was set up for facilities that could not meet the deadlines, and on March 13, 2026, EPA proposed amendments to the 2024 rule, arguing the law allows only one residual risk review. The proposal was not final as of September 2026. A weaker rule does not erase past exposure claims, because those cases are about emissions that already happened, often decades ago.

Attorneys evaluating EtO claims look at three things:

1. Proximity and duration. How close you lived, worked, or went to school to the plant, and for how many years. Long-term residence within a few miles is the typical profile; the Walker plaintiff lived about 1.5 miles away and also visited the plant for work.
2. Diagnosis. Cancers most associated with EtO: non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other lymphomas, leukemia, and breast cancer. Stomach cancer is sometimes reviewed.
3. Timing. The exposure came years before the diagnosis, and you file before the deadline.

Workers at the plants may face different rules, because workers' compensation often limits suits against an employer, though claims against other companies may be possible. People who only passed by occasionally, or whose cancer is a type not linked to EtO, generally do not qualify. See how to sue a company for the basics of an individual case.

Georgia residents near other sterilizers can also ask attorneys to review their situation. The same questions apply at any plant: how close, how long, and what diagnosis. If you moved away years ago, your claim is not necessarily gone; what matters is where you lived during the exposure years and whether your filing deadline, which usually runs from diagnosis, is still open.

EtO cases are hard because the gas is invisible and exposure happened over many years, often before anyone was measuring. Plaintiffs usually have to prove two things with expert testimony:

• General causation: that ethylene oxide can cause the kind of cancer the plaintiff has. Here, plaintiffs rely on sources such as the National Cancer Institute's summary of the research on lymphoma, leukemia, and breast cancer.
• Specific causation: that this plant's emissions reached this person in a high enough dose, for long enough, to cause this person's cancer. That typically involves air dispersion modeling, company emissions records, wind data, and a detailed residential and work history.

Defendants attack both steps. They challenge the experts' methods, argue that emissions were within permit limits, and point to other causes of the plaintiff's cancer. The 2025 reinstatement of eight Cobb County cases came after a trial court had dismissed them over expert testimony, showing how much these cases turn on whether a judge lets the experts testify.

The Walker trial shows what a strong individual profile looks like: many years living about 1.5 miles from the plant, regular visits to the plant for work, and a diagnosis, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, that fits the research. Your own records do not need to be perfect, but the more precisely you can document where you were and when, the easier it is for experts to estimate your exposure. For more on how individual injury cases compare with class actions, see class action vs. mass tort.

The group settlements work out to several hundred thousand dollars per claimant on average before fees, but individual amounts vary widely with the cancer type, severity, age, and strength of exposure evidence. Large jury verdicts are often reduced after trial or on appeal, and any recovery is reduced by attorneys' fees, case expenses, and repayment of health insurers or Medicare where they paid for treatment. The averages above are gross figures, not what a claimant takes home.

Georgia law also limits punitive damages. Under Georgia law, punitive damages are capped at $250,000 unless the jury finds the defendant specifically intended to cause harm, which is why the Walker jury's split on intent mattered so much. See class action vs. individual lawsuit for why these are individual cases.

Georgia law says actions for injuries to the person must be brought within two years after the right of action accrues (O.C.G.A. 9-3-33), and claims for loss of consortium, such as a spouse's claim, get four years. Because EtO cancers develop years after exposure, the key question is when the right of action accrued, which courts often tie to diagnosis or to when you reasonably should have connected your illness to the plant. Wrongful death claims and cases involving minors can follow different timing rules, so ask an attorney about your situation.

Because Georgia's general personal injury statute of limitations is two years, a person diagnosed in 2024 who has not yet filed may be close to or past the deadline. If you are unsure, talk to an attorney promptly. Other states set their own deadlines; in California, for example, the personal injury deadline is two years under Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1.

1. Map your exposure. List every address where you lived, worked, or went to school near a sterilizer, with years.
2. Get your medical records, especially pathology reports and the date of diagnosis.
3. Find proof of residence such as old leases, utility bills, school records, or tax records.
4. Do not wait. Georgia's two year limit is short compared with how long these cancers take to appear.
5. Ask family members to help reconstruct old addresses and dates. Relatives, former neighbors, and old school records can fill gaps in your own memory.
6. Keep a symptom and treatment log covering chemotherapy, transplants, missed work, and how the illness changed daily life, which supports damages.
7. Talk to an attorney who handles Georgia EtO cases about which defendant and court fit your facts.

A free case review takes about two minutes. You can also read about other toxic exposure cases, like PFAS water contamination, or browse lawsuits you may be able to join.