Illinois Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
Attorney Shawn Collins, founder and partner of The Collins Law Firm in Naperville, Illinois, was instrumental in forging a $408 million settlement of the cancer claims of more than 800 plaintiffs in In re Willowbrook Ethylene Oxide Litigation, venued in Illinois State Court (Cook County). The claims arose after a federal government report announced in 2018 for the first time that a sterilization plant in Willowbrook, IL–operated by Sterigenics, LLC, and its predecessors–had been emitting a chemical known as ethylene oxide 24 hours a day into the residential community’s air for more than 30 years. Once it left the Sterigenics’ plant, the colorless, odorless ethylene oxide silently migrated a great distance, exposing people in homes, workplaces, and schools.
Ethylene oxide is widely used in the sterilization of medical devices and other items. It has been classified as a known human carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). It is especially dangerous to children.
Until the release of the government’s 2018 report, the residents of the Willowbrook area had never been told that such a dangerous chemical was infiltrating their community on a daily basis, or indeed at all. The more than 800 plaintiffs in the litigation were typically those who had been breathing the ethylene oxide—unknowingly—for years. After years of inhalation, most were then diagnosed with breast cancer, or lymphoma or leukemia—the cancers most strongly associated in medical studies with exposure to ethylene oxide.
We are proud to announce that our $363 million verdict in Kamuda v. Sterigenics U.S. LLC, et al., was named the number one jury verdict in Illinois in ALL practice areas in 2022 by 
Leading the Charge Against America’s Biggest Polluters
Hair relaxers are the latest beauty products to come under fire because of their link to potentially dangerous health effects. New scientific evidence has emerged that suggests that the long-term use of hair relaxers is linked to increased rates of uterine cancer. More specifically, a groundbreaking new study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has shown that women who use chemical hair straightening or relaxing products regularly are at a higher risk for developing uterine cancer than those who do not use these products. This study along with an earlier NIH study linking hair relaxer use to ovarian cancer are the reason women are filing hair relaxer lawsuits.
Baby food has been facing some much-needed scrutiny lately. A recently released Congressional report disclosed that many top baby foods, both organic and non-organic, are contaminated with dangerous levels of heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. This is especially concerning since both the World Health Organization and the 
As if COVID-19 is not bad enough, now there is news that some hand sanitizers being sold to prevent the virus may be hazardous themselves.
But it is all the more so if your cancer might have been caused by exposure to a toxic chemical in your home, air, or water. There is a true sense of violation and betrayal when a cancer victim realizes that her illness might have been caused, for example, by the careless dumping of industrial chemicals by a company in her neighborhood. It may even be a company where the cancer victim herself, or a family member, worked for many years.