A retired truck driver was awarded $20 million Friday by a jury in his landmark trial against the owner and operator of a sterilization facility in Covington where a carcinogenic gas has been used for decades.
It took a dozen jurors just over three hours Friday to reach their verdict in favor of Gary Walker, who alleged he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2017 because he was exposed over 47 years to ethylene oxide emitted from the facility.
The jurors decided C.R. Bard, which opened the facility in 1967, and its successor, Becton, Dickinson and Company, must also pay punitive damages in the case. The amount of those damages, designed to punish the companies, is due to be considered by the jury Monday, meaning Walker’s award amount may increase.
The case is the first of hundreds like it in Georgia to reach trial.
As a truck driver between 1970 and 1999, Walker picked up sterilized medical products from the facility several times a week, case records show. A longtime Covington resident, the 75-year-old contends ethylene oxide -- an invisible, odorless and tasteless carcinogen -- soaked the materials he touched and poisoned the air he and other people living and working in the community breathed.
Walker’s lawyers said Bard and BD have used more than 9.7 million pounds of ethylene oxide at the Covington facility, which was one of the largest of its kind in the country in the 1980s. BD acquired Bard in 2017.
There were no emissions controls at the facility until 1990, though Bard was warned in the 1980s about ethylene oxide’s link to cancer, Walker alleged. His cancer is in remission, following $2.3 million worth of medical treatment, including 10 cycles of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says ethylene oxide use can contribute to increased cancer risk.
Lawyers for Bard and BD say the Covington facility has always been operated safely and responsibly in compliance with state and federal laws and regulations. They argued Walker’s cancer was not caused by ethylene oxide.
There are more than 400 lawsuits like Walker’s pending against Bard and BD in Georgia, in relation to the Covington plant at 8195 Industrial Blvd. The facility is less than a mile from the city’s downtown area and close to schools, churches, houses and a football field, case records show.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
BD states on its website that its Covington and Madison facilities safely sterilize more than 375 million medical devices each year.
Hundreds of other ethylene oxide exposure lawsuits are pending in Georgia against other companies, including Sterigenics, that own and operate medical sterilization facilities in Smyrna and Augusta. Plaintiffs allege the companies are liable for a range of injuries caused by their prolonged use of ethylene oxide.
BD and the other facility owners say ethylene oxide is the only way to sterilize most medical devices without damaging them, making their work critically important. Widespread public concern about the facilities erupted in 2019 following news articles showing their link to increased cancer risk.
The jury in Walker’s trial heard testimony from six other people from Covington who developed cancer and are suing Bard and BD. Company leaders who worked at the facility for decades also testified in defense of its sterilization and safety protocols. They said they never intended to harm anyone.
“I was part of the community,” Beth Bruette, who worked at the Covington facility for 30 years, testified during the trial. “Our work was part of the community. We knew the importance of having that (ethylene oxide sterilization) process for the health care industry.”
BD said in case filings its Covington operations have been permitted by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division since at least 1974. The company says ethylene oxide levels in Covington are consistent with those found nationwide in urban and rural areas not near sterilization facilities.
The trial is being livestreamed by Courtroom View Network.
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