The owner of a Covington sterilization facility exposed the community with a carcinogenic gas for more than 50 years without warning the public, an attorney for a man suing the company told jurors Tuesday as a historic trial got underway.
Stephen “Buck” Daniel said his client, retired truck driver Gary Walker, developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma and went through 10 cycles of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant because of his “massive” exposure to a chemical that has been used to sterilize medical equipment at the facility since the late 1960s.
“The evidence in this case will reveal that a company poisoned a Georgia community for over 50 years without warning them,” Daniel told the jurors during his opening statements. “This company was hiding this danger in plain sight.”…