Environmental -- 2021



New Mexico v. Sterigenics   (N.M. State Trial Ct.)

Public Nuisance Suit Seeks to Undermine Ethylene Oxide Regulations

The NAM filed an amicus brief urging a New Mexico trial court to exercise its discretion, under the doctrine of primary jurisdiction, to dismiss a public nuisance lawsuit brought under the name of the state’s Attorney General that would create a parallel and deeply problematic regulatory regime for medical product sterilization facilities that use ethylene oxide. The facility at issue is already subject to comprehensive regulations and permit conditions developed by the U.S. EPA and the New Mexico Environment Department, but the AG’s suit, led by a prominent national plaintiffs’ law firm, would seek to rewrite those rules to essentially shut down the facility unless it pays up to satisfy the state and its outside law firm. The NAM’s brief argues that allowing ethylene oxide use, management, and emission standards to be fashioned and hammered out in a tort case by a local jury applying malleable public nuisance standards is not in the best interests of health care, sound science, or sensible regulation. Unfortunately, on June 29, 2021, the court allowed the case to proceed.


Related Documents:
NAM brief  (June 4, 2021)