CVN screenshot of plaintiff attorney Kurt Zaner delivering his opening statement
Golden, CO - A Colorado state court jury heard opening statements Wednesday in a lawsuit alleging toxic emissions from ethylene oxide used to sterilize medical devices gave four women cancer, and the full trial is being webcast and recorded gavel-to-gavel by Courtroom View Network.
The trial is among the first involving Terumo Blood and Cell Technology’s facility in Jefferson County, Colorado. Attorneys for the four plaintiffs accuse the company of releasing ethylene oxide (ETO) into the community for decades despite supposedly knowing it’s a carcinogen, but Terumo maintains the levels released were too low to cause the women’s illness.
The case is being closely watched after the EPA warned in 2023 that thousands of residents who lived in proximity to the plant face an increased risk of cancer.
The full trial is being webcast live and on-demand by CVN.
Terumo is a global medical device company based in Japan. The plant in Jefferson manufactures life saving blood donation supplies and other blood devices used in hospitals that require sterilized equipment.
Attorney Kurt Zaner of Zaner Law, representing the four plaintiffs, described to jurors during his opening statement how ETO is used to sterilize medical equipment, but the toxic fumes have to be properly scrubbed and vented after use.
Zaner detailed how the plant utilized a vent akin to a whale’s blow hole and a series of “wet scrubbers” to vent ETO fumes, but he said despite knowing as far back as the 1980’s that ETO posed a cancer risk Terumo still chose not to install pollution control devices or track ETO levels in the community. That choice supposedly resulted in a small release compared to the overall volume of ETO used, but an amount Zaner said put nearby residents at grave risk over the years.
“These could seem like small numbers, but we’re talking about hundreds of thousands and millions of pounds in continuous operation for decades,” he said. “The numbers get very high.”
Zaner told jurors that Terumo had the option of installing pollution control units when their newest plant opened for what would have been a marginal cost compared to their overall operating budget, but the company supposedly declined citing fire risks associated with the devices and the fact regulators didn’t require their use at the time.
However when regulators eventually did require that Terumo install the devices, Zaner claimed they immediately reduced emissions by 75 percent with no associated safety risk.
Representing Terumo, John Ewald of King & Spalding expressed sympathy for the plaintiffs and their struggles with cancer but urged jurors not to decide the case on that basis.
CVN screenshot of defense attorney John Ewald delivering his opening statement
He focused his opening statement largely on the question of dose levels, and he repeatedly stressed to jurors that while ETO is toxic at certain levels that the community exposure the four plaintiffs experienced isn’t sufficient to cause their illness.
“At the low levels you see the same rates of cancer as everyone else,” he explained.
Ewald pushed back on claims that concerns about fire and explosion risks associated with pollution control devices were overblown, along with arguing that a company that complies with all regulatory requirements shouldn’t be penalized for taking additional measures not legally required.
The trial is slated to last roughly six weeks, and CVN’s live and on-demand gavel-to-gavel coverage will continue for the duration of the proceedings.
The case is captioned Jordan, et al. v. Terumo Sterilization Services, Inc., case number 2020CV031457 in Colorado’s Jefferson County District Court.
E-mail David Siegel at dsiegel@cvn.com