* Sun-Times in January…

Sterigenics will pay $408 million to settle more than 870 lawsuits alleging that its Willowbrook facility exposed residents to ethylene oxide gas and caused illnesses, the company announced Monday. […]

The settlements are “not to be construed as an admission of any liability or that emissions from the Willowbrook facilities ever posed any safety hazard to the surrounding communities,” the statement said. “Sterigenics maintains that its Willowbrook operations did not pose a safety risk to the community in which it operated.”

The company said it was in its best interest to settle the lawsuits because significant time and cost would have been required to contest all of the cases, in addition to having to fight against “years of biased media coverage in the Chicago area.”

* ABC Chicago on Friday…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that people who lived near the Sterigenics facility while it was operating in Willowbrook do face greater cancer concerns.

The CDC launched an investigation into the long-term health impacts of the plant, which closed in 2019. Its report concluded that because of ethylene oxide exposure, people who spent years breathing the air within one mile of Sterigenics have an increased lifetime risk of cancer.

The CDC also found there was not an increased cancer risk after the facility closed in February 2019.

* Crain’s…

The report, Evaluation of Ethylene Oxide Concentrations in Outdoor Air near Sterigenics, analyzes ethylene oxide concentrations measured in Willowbrook from November 2018 to March 2019. It also concluded that after Sterigenics stopped sterilization operations on Feb. 15, 2019, ethylene oxide concentrations in the air within a mile of the facility went back to normal.

Sterigenics and its parent company, Sotera, have not admitted “that emissions from the Willowbrook facilities ever posed any safety hazard to the surrounding communities,” Cleveland-based Sotera said in a press release earlier this year.

* From the CDC report…

Residential lifetime excess cancer risks from long-term EtO exposure within 1 mile of the facility during operations ranged from 4 to 10 excess cancers in a population of 10,000, which led ATSDR to conclude there was a public health concern for increased cancer risk based on past exposure. Lifetime, excess cancer risks are estimates used to inform public health decision- making. They are not measurements of actual cases of cancer in a community.

ATSDR estimated the cancer risks in this document assuming years of breathing the EtO concentrations EPA measured from November 2018-Februrary 2019. There is no long-term air monitoring data to assess EtO concentrations and associated cancer risk prior to November 2018. EtO emissions may have been greater in the past.

* Related…

* River Bender | Durbin, Duckworth, Schneider Release Statement On CDC Report On Public Health Impact Of Sterigenics: “It is deeply upsetting that EtO emissions from the Sterigenics facility have led to potentially life-threatening consequences for the residents of Willowbrook. Those who lived nearby and worked at Sterigenics during its operations are now burdened with an increased risk of cancer. Every effort possible should be made by Sterigenics, EPA and the Illinois Department of Public Health to help those at risk monitor their health and access necessary treatment,” the lawmakers said. “While we are certainly relieved that EtO emissions are no longer lingering in Willowbrook and that residents are not facing continuing risk, this situation must not happen again – in Illinois or anywhere else in this country. EPA must take its mission seriously to protect Americans from environmental threats and hold companies like Sterigenics accountable when the health and safety of residents are jeopardized.”

* AP | Sterigenics will pay $35 million to settle Georgia lawsuits, company announces: Details of the settlement were submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. In a statement Wednesday, the company denied any liability, and the 79 plaintiffs must agree to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning the decision is final.