The first trial in hundreds of Georgia lawsuits alleging people were injured by exposure to a chemical used to sterilize medical products is due to start Monday in Gwinnett County.
Retired truck driver Gary Walker, 75, claims his decades of exposure to ethylene oxide at and around a sterilization facility in Covington caused him to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer.
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…