Augusta Medical Equipments Claimed through a Lawsuit

More than 20 present and former Augusta residents have filed a Lawsuit against Kendall Patient Recovery, a medical equipment steriliser near Augusta Regional Airport. They argue that the facility produced excessive amounts of ethylene oxide, a carcinogenic chemical, which caused everything from breast cancer to miscarriages.

Plaintiff Evelyn Armstrong, who has lived five and a half miles near the facility since 1989, is a good example from the case. Attorneys for KPR filed a motion to dismiss the case, claiming that KPR never broke the law when it came to the level of its emissions, and that the complaint.

It is based on the plaintiffs living near or working at the plant and having health problems, does not prove that ethylene oxide from KPR was the cause of their illnesses, or that ethylene oxide was the cause at all. The majority of the claims in the Lawsuit are based on past emission levels, which were much higher than they have been in recent years, according to the complaint. The EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory data shows substantially higher volumes of ethylene oxide discharged from the facility, ranging from nearly 4,000 pounds in 2009 to 94 pounds in 2020.

Despite the reduction in emissions, some locals are concerned about the KPR plant and want it to be shut down. According to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, the factory meets all of the requirements for a similar facility. Two steriliser sites in Georgia – in Covington and Smyrna – were recognised as potentially having difficulties when the US Environmental Protection Agency released its National Air Toxic Assessment in 2014, but the KPR plant was not.