Covington sterilizing plant poisoned community for years without warning, jury told

Becton Dickinson & Co., known as BD, owns and operates the sterilization facility at 8195 Industrial Blvd. in Covington, which was opened in 1967 by C.R. Bard to sterilize medical devices and products. BD acquired Bard in 2017.

“They are one in the same,” Judge Emily Brantley told the jurors Tuesday in reference to the companies, which are the defendants in the case.

It is the first of hundreds of such cases in Georgia to reach trial.

Eric Rumanek, an attorney for BD and Bard, said during his opening statement the use of ethylene oxide to sterilize equipment at the Covington facility has always been safe, responsible and in compliance with a host of federal and state regulatory agencies, including Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division.

“Cancer is the villain in this story, not Bard and not Bard’s safe and responsible use of ethylene oxide,” Rumanek told the jurors. “We’re here to defend a safe and responsible company, to defend a sterilization process that saves lives and is critical to our health care system.”

The trial, in Gwinnett County State Court, is expected to last three weeks.

Walker’s case and hundreds of others pending in Georgia courts allege the owners and operators of sterilization facilities in the state are liable for a range of injuries caused by their prolonged use of ethylene oxide to sterilize medical equipment. The cases allege emissions from these facilities and stored sterilized products cause cancer and other problems.

Sterigenics and KPR, doing business as Kendall Patient Recovery, are separately being sued in Georgia in relation to their sterilization facilities in Cobb County and Augusta, respectively. Sterigenics was about to face its first Georgia trial in ethylene oxide exposure cases when it settled that case and more than 70 others tied to its Smyrna facility for $35 million in October 2023.

Jury selection in Walker’s trial began Monday. Walker’s first witness is scheduled to testify Wednesday.

Walker, 75, was diagnosed with cancer in June 2017. His disease is in remission. He claims he was exposed to high levels of ethylene oxide from the sterilization facility while living and working in Covington during the 47 years preceding his diagnosis.

BD states on its website that its Covington and Madison facilities safely sterilize more than 375 million medical devices each year.

Though Walker wasn’t employed by Bard or BD, for almost 29 years he would visit their Covington facility and warehouses several times a week to load his truck with sterilized products, Daniel said. Ethylene oxide — an invisible, odorless and tasteless toxin — soaked the materials Walker touched and poisoned the air he and other people living and working nearby breathed, Daniel added.

“This is happening nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year for decades,” he said of the sterilization in Covington.

Daniel said more than 9.7 million pounds of ethylene oxide has been used at the facility, which is less than a mile from schools, churches, houses, a football field and downtown Covington. He said Bard didn’t start controlling emissions at the facility until 1990, though it was warned in 1980 by its ethylene oxide supplier, Union Carbide, that exposure to the chemical was linked to cancer.

“The company knowingly took advantage of an unsuspecting public,” Daniel said. “The state of Georgia had to sue them into compliance.”

In October 2019, the state filed a lawsuit against BD seeking to close the Covington facility until ethylene oxide emissions were better controlled. At the time, Attorney General Chris Carr criticized BD’s “lack of response” to an ethylene oxide leak at the facility he said was caused by “a lack of diligence and prolonged operator error rather than an equipment malfunction.”

Rumanek told the jurors the lawsuit was resolved within a week because BD was already doing what the state asked. He said Bard and BD never hid their Covington operations and routinely upgraded the facility’s emissions controls with the best available technology before being required to.

Walker, who has a family history of cancer, developed a “naturally occurring, unpreventable cancer” that was not caused by ethylene oxide, Rumanek said. The chemical occurs naturally and exists everywhere in safe levels, and tests have shown the amount in Covington is comparable to places without sterilization facilities.

“It would not be right to punish Bard for responsibly using something that the federal government says is necessary and critical to providing safe medical devices,” Rumanek said. “The question is: Did Bard show reasonable care? And the evidence will show, overwhelmingly, yes, they did.”

Witnesses in the trial include people who worked at the Covington facility, doctors and cancer experts. Walker is also expected to testify.