“In 2018 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a public report revealing that Willowbrook, Illinois was experiencing staggering and disproportionate rates of cancer.”

💡 This was the first time residents learned their community was being poisoned, after 34 years of invisible exposure

“The complaints commonly alleged that Griffith intentionally located and operated its facility in a residential area despite knowing that its dangerously high EtO emissions would migrate to areas near the facilities, including to homes and neighboring schools, and eventually cause bodily injuries.”

💡 This shows the companies chose profit and convenience over public safety when siting their toxic facility

“While the IEPA expressed concerns about the projected EtO emissions, it ultimately granted Griffith’s request for a permit. And, as far as we can tell from the Master Complaint, the permit did not specify or otherwise limit the amount of EtO that Griffith could emit from its Willowbrook sterilization operations.”

💡 The regulatory system failed by authorizing unlimited toxic emissions despite knowing the dangers

“For the 35 years the sterilization plant operated in Willowbrook, local residents unknowingly inhaled EtO on a regular and continuous basis, with many individuals coming to experience a range of illnesses, including cancer and other serious diseases.”

💡 Generations breathed carcinogens daily without any warning or ability to protect themselves

“The Master Complaint’s allegations, which describe invisible and odorless emissions that Willowbrook residents unknowingly inhaled.”

💡 The contamination was designed into the industrial process in a way that prevented detection or avoidance by victims

“Yet the Master Complaint repeatedly alleges that Griffith and Sterigenics intentionally, and therefore, expectedly, emitted EtO into the air despite their knowledge that it would contact people who lived or worked near the facilities.”

💡 The emissions were not accidents but deliberate business decisions made with full knowledge of the consequences

“Instead, what the Master Complaint alleges happened in Willowbrook strikes us as much more reminiscent of the well-publicized, environmental disasters of Times Beach and Love Canal that prompted the exclusion’s adoption and inclusion in the CGL policies.”

💡 The court recognized this disaster belongs in the same category as America’s most notorious pollution catastrophes

“But in the wake of the 2018 governmental report and floodtide of publicity that followed, over 800 people filed individual lawsuits against Griffith and Sterigenics in Illinois state court, asserting various claims under Illinois law.”

💡 The scale of litigation reflects the widespread harm caused across an entire community over decades

“The stakes are just as high for the parties in this litigation, how the question is answered may be the difference between $150 million in defense costs and zero.”

💡 Corporations and insurers are fighting over who pays legal bills while victims are still seeking compensation for cancer

“Even after decades of pollution causing widespread cancer, the companies faced no criminal liability. The legal battle instead centered on insurance coverage and whether defense costs should be paid, not whether victims should be compensated.”

💡 The justice system prioritized insurance contract disputes over accountability to poisoned residents

“Throughout the controversy, both Griffith and Sterigenics publicly maintained compliance with environmental laws. The permit became their central talking point and proof, in their view, of regulatory approval and legitimacy.”

💡 Companies transformed a failed regulatory process into a public relations defense against moral responsibility

“Ethylene oxide is one of the most potent carcinogens regulated under U.S. law. Continuous exposure even at low levels increases the risk of breast cancer, lymphoma, and other diseases.”

💡 The chemical released for 35 years is recognized by federal regulators as among the most dangerous substances

“The Willowbrook disaster was not an accident but the predictable outcome of a system that rewards cost cutting, tolerates regulatory weakness, and values profit over life. The emissions were authorized, the harms foreseeable, and the accountability deferred.”

💡 This was not a failure of institutions but their successful operation according to priorities that favor corporations

“In light of the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision in American States Insurance Co. v. Koloms, 687 N.E.2d 72 (1997), and mindful of Erie Insurance Exchange v. Imperial Marble Corp., 957 N.E.2d 1214 (2011), what relevance, if any, does a permit or regulation authorizing emissions (generally or at particular levels) play in assessing the application of a pollution exclusion within a standard-form commercial general liability policy?”

💡 The legal outcome hinges on whether permits that authorize pollution can shield companies from insurance consequences

“Before us is an important question of Illinois law about the meaning and scope of the pollution exclusion in standard-form commercial general liability policies. The exclusion owes its existence to the confounding risk of liability insurance companies faced in recent decades stemming from highly publicized environmental disasters (like the Love Canal crisis in Niagara Falls, New York and the Times Beach catastrophe in Missouri).”

💡 Insurance companies created pollution exclusions specifically to avoid paying for environmental disasters like Willowbrook