Delaware Residents Near Atlas Point Plant Exposed to Cancer-Causing Gas Emission for Decades, Class Action Claims

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The owner of the Atlas Point manufacturing plant in New Castle, Delaware has been hit with a proposed class action over what one nearby resident describes as the company’s “dangerous and reckless” emission of cancer-causing Ethylene Oxide (EtO) gas.

According to the 28-page complaint, those living within a specified geographic area around defendant Croda Inc.’s Atlas Point plant, which produces surfactants, have been exposed to “large amounts” of toxic EtO—a colorless, odorless gas recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), World Health Organization (WHO) and International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) as a known human carcinogen—via controlled and uncontrolled releases during the manufacturing process.

Citing EPA estimates, the lawsuit alleges the plaintiff and proposed class members are “up to 4 times more likely” to develop cancer than the average American as a result of Croda’s “irresponsible and reckless” conduct, and are entitled to medical monitoring, among other damages, in order to detect the disease as early as possible. 

“Unfortunately, people cannot see or smell EtO when it is in the air,” the complaint says. “As such, Plaintiff and Class Members have unknowingly been exposed to EtO for decades while Defendant knew, or should have known, that the EtO it was releasing was dangerous, toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, and harmful to local residents.”

Per the suit, the defendant’s New Castle plant, in operation since 1937 and acquired by Croda in 2006, produces surfactants, or surface-acting agents, that lower the surface tension between two liquids, a gas and a liquid or a liquid and a solid, allowing the substances to bind. The case, filed in Delaware federal court, says surfactants can act as detergents, wetting agents, emulsifiers, foaming agents and dispersants, and are used in the manufacture of antifreeze, solvents and adhesives.

According to the case, EtO is one of 187 pollutants classified by the EPA as “hazardous air pollutants,” also known as “air toxics.” Per the suit, manufacturers have known of the harmful effects of EtO since at least 1977, when the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommended that the gas be considered mutagenic and potentially carcinogenic to humans, occupational exposure be minimized and alternate sterilization procedures be utilized.

“It is dangerous, toxic, carcinogenic, and mutagenic,” the suit reads. “EtO is highly reactive, readily taken up by the lungs, efficiently absorbed into the blood stream, and easily distributed throughout the human body. Its deleterious properties have been widely known for decades.” 

While acute inhalation exposure to high concentrations of EtO can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, respiratory irritation, vomiting and gastrointestinal complications, exposure to the gas also increases the risk of white blood cell-related cancers including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, myeloma and lymphocytic leukemia, the lawsuit says. According to the complaint, the EPA classified EtO has a human carcinogen in December 2016 and considers any exposure to the gas, however small, to pose a cancer risk.

Croda’s Atlas Point plant produces “up to 30,000 metric tons of EtO annually” as a byproduct of its surfactant production and the creation of ethylene glycol, a liquid used as a raw material to make polyester fibers and antifreeze formulations, the lawsuit goes on. The EtO emitted from the New Castle facility “remains in the air for months” before becoming concentrated in atmospheric inversions and moving through neighboring communities via prevailing winds, the suit says.

Given its 211-day half-life in the atmosphere, EtO remains in the air long after it has been emitted, the complaint explains, adding that the gas can linger and travel along the ground given it’s heavier than air. 

According to the lawsuit, Croda has known for years that its plant has operated without sufficient pollution control systems, and that the release of EtO has spread well beyond the property boundaries of the facility, exposing nearby residents. In 2008, the Atlas Point plant had a documented, unpermitted release of EtO, the suit says, alleging the company has violated Delaware natural resources and environmental control regulations since then due to its failure to monitor for and record emissions, among other shortcomings, per the case.

Most recently, the Atlas Point plant reported an emissions accident in November 2018 that resulted in the release of more than 2,600 pounds of EtO into the air, leading to the closure of the Delaware Memorial Bridge for seven hours and the discharge of thousands of gallons of contaminated deluge water into the ground near the facility, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit looks to represent those who have resided within census tracts 10003015400, 10003105502 and 10003015802—the “class zone,” depicted below—for a period of one year or more at any time beginning January 1, 1988 and the present.

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