Multiple lawsuits are expected to follow the first one filed over exposure to ethylene oxide in the Kanawha Valley. Eyewitness News said North Charleston resident Cathy Darlene Flint filed the first complaint in Kanawha Circuit Court against Union Carbide, Dow Chemical, Bayer and others for alleged exposure to ethylene oxide. She contends the gas gave her cancer. Flint’s lawyer is poised to file more than 30 other cases as 200 people have expressed concern over what exposure to the cancer-causing chemical known as ETO may have done to them.
State health and environmental officials claim there are no unusual numbers of cancers near the plants or in Kanawha County. The lawsuit also targets the health care systems that run local hospitals which use the chemical to sterilize surgical instruments. The case has been assigned to Kanawha County Circuit Judge Stephanie Abraham.