Sterigenics: Battles Won—War Ongoing, Part 3

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this Sterigenics saga, we reviewed how several former employees of Hinsdale South High School—inspired and helped by Stop Sterigenics (the community group which was recently recognized for its good works)—came to begin a Notification Project so that other former employees might learn of the dangers they had been exposed to while working at South. From 1984 to 2019, ethylene oxide (EtO a known carcinogen) had been released into the atmosphere by the Sterigenics corporation via two medical sterilization plants near the high school which led to many illnesses and deaths. Neither the Hinsdale Township High School District 86 school board (which had hired the teachers to work in this polluted building) nor the teachers’ union (the Hinsdale High School Teachers Association or HHSTA, supposed guardian of teachers’ well-being) had been willing to do the job, despite the obvious responsibility they had to these past employees and repeated requests for them to do so. Although some attention had been drawn to the issue via meetings, essays, an on-line petition, and an excellent report on CBS This Morning, the Notification Project members believed that to ensure as many former employees as possible found out about the harm which working in South may have caused, a personal contact needed to be made.

This was a daunting task for a bunch of individuals without access to official records. Hundreds of people who had worked at South since 1984, but most had scattered all over the state and country during the many years after they’d left South. How could a list of who they all were even be generated, not to mention the logistics of finding and contacting them? There were a few informal on-line groups, but there were also hundreds who had lost contact with the Hinsdale South community many years ago who might still be completely unaware that working at South had been a health risk. With no road map to follow on how to get this done, the Notification Project improvised and created its own system.

Fortunately, for many years, the school had supplied everybody with an employee phone/address book near the beginning of each year. We knew the information in the books was way out of date, but at least we could get the names of just about everybody who had worked in the building. This was important since some “behind-the-scenes” people weren’t included in the other main source of names (South’s yearbooks) because they had been employed by various sub-contractors (like the cafeteria service and the night cleaning crew). Although most people had pitched the address books over the years, a few had saved at least some of them. So the first task was to put out word that there was a need for these books, beginning with the 1984 edition. And in a couple of weeks, most of them had been gathered in one place. With them, it was possible to generate a master list of almost everybody who had worked at South over the 34-year span.

After much squinting and cross-referencing over the extremely tiny type (at least it was to some aged eyes), the final tally of all those who had worked at South from 1984-2019 came out to roughly 1,000 people. That included teachers, support staff, administrators, and others employed by sub-contractors. Then came organizing the overall task into more specific steps and compiling the on-line resources necessary to explain what had happened to those for whom this news might be a bolt out of the blue. Most important was finding volunteers who would help with what still seemed an overwhelming task.

And that leads to one of the most rewarding aspects of this whole process: How past employees of South came through to make the Notification Project work. In the middle of a pandemic, these friends took the time to take on something others who had more responsibility to address had ignored. It can’t be overstated how indebted I am to those who gave of themselves so generously to make sure everybody at risk knew what had happened and what their options going forward were. We truly appreciate your selfless efforts Kathy, Nancy, Susan, Cheryl, Brett, Linda, Cherie, George, Mary, Maribeth, Bob, Rose, Carol, Marge, Jeanne, Mike, Anne, Kris, Barb, Sue, and Kerri (to name a few, with apologies to those my poor memory may have overlooked). And then there were four who went even further above and beyond, devoting hours and hours to the project’s success and who merit their own special category of gratitude: Peg, Judy, Candy, and Sharon made herculean efforts to get everyone notified and this project succeeded in large part because of them. In our divisive, toilet-paper-hoarding times, it is truly inspiring that this group would come together motivated solely to do good for others. “Thanks” doesn’t even begin to express the depth of appreciation I have for all that you did.

The notification portion then ensued with steady, pain-staking progress: Organizing the missing people into smaller groupings, finding “Division Heads” who would assume responsibility for notifying specific categories of employees, creating a letter which explained what had happened and what recourse victims had, disbursing copies of that letter electronically, obtaining hundreds of copies of the letter to send via mail to those for whom we didn’t have a personal or digital contact, buying stamps and envelopes to mail those letters, using various on-line resources to find people for whom we only had a name and an old address, and then of course, making contact (or attempting to make contact at least twice) with 1,000 people. We figured out who we were looking for, learned about how public records could be used to figure out where they were, and then set out to contact them.

It was a tedious, challenging project, but with the help of those wonderful people listed above, we were able to contact over 86% of those who had worked at South from 1984-2019. For most of those we reached, the notification served as a heads up on what to watch for or “medical monitoring” (as we came to learn) after EtO exposure. But at least 20 of the people contacted had been negatively impacted by Sterigenics and were unaware of the source of their issues until hearing from the Notification Project. Most of them are now members of the personal injury group of over 700 who have filed lawsuits against Sterigenics.

It’s important for everyone to understand that this, like Stop Sterigenics, was a grassroots collection of concerned people who had little expertise in any of this, but cared enough to get involved. Just as Stop Sterigenics tackled a tough problem, the Notification Project folks made the decision to take on a needed task no one else was willing to do and about which it would have been easy to rationalize as un-doable. Both District 86 and the HHSTA had much greater access to resources and necessary records to notify those who had been a part of those organizations for decades, but simply would not, despite specifically being asked to do so. (Yes, I know I’ve mentioned the school board and HHSTA’s irresponsible lack of action before, but I’ve had a difficult time accepting that these bodies—both of which I had been a part for 25 years—could treat past employees with such callous indifference.)

Regardless of those organizations’ failings, the Notification Program was a success, and many more past South employees learned the truth than would have otherwise. So, similar to (if not on the scale of) the positive impact of Stop Sterigenics, those wonderful souls listed above made a difference. However, after the figurative pats on the back for those two wins have been handed out, much still needs to be done when it comes to EtO release in populated areas for these happy endings to ring out even more resoundingly. In our final installment, we’ll review that “To-Do” list.

For a complete timeline and documentation on how the village of Willowbrook has kept track of the Sterigenics issues, see this link. For more on improving public schools, you can check out my eBook, excerpts of which can be read here.