A Colorado medical equipment sterilization company avoided a potential $444 million judgement when it won a jury verdict last week against four women living in the area of the company’s Lakewood, Colo., sterilization plant who claimed that emissions of ethylene oxide caused them to contract cancer.

Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies designs, manufactures, and distributes medical products that collect, separate, and process blood and cells.

Attorneys for the company said that nearly five years of litigation and a six-week “bellwether” trial ended with a “complete defense verdict” in what they say is the fifth ethylene oxide case to go to trial since 2018, when hundreds of cases were filed nationwide. Lawyers from King & Spalding said this is the first multi-plaintiff ethylene oxide case tried in the country so far.

The jury deliberated for a little more than one day before delivering its verdict, defense attorneys said.

The plaintiffs alleged that Terumo had negligently emitted ethylene oxide gas from its Lakewood facility since the 1960s and caused them to develop cancer. The company’s Lakewood facility, originally permitted as COBE Sterilization Services, was permitted by the city in 1997 and ownership was transferred to Terumo in 2012, according to state air pollution records.

Zaner Law LLP and Edleson PC, counsel for the plaintiffs, argued that decades of exposure to ethylene oxide emissions from the plant were responsible for their illnesses. The plaintiffs asked for $444 million including compensatory and punitive damages.

“Terumo BCT meets or exceeds every standard for EtO use,” said the company in a statement to The Denver Gazette. “Our advanced emissions control system captures over 99% of the EtO used in our Lakewood sterilization operations. We installed a new, state-of-the-art, $22-million emissions control system that will further reduce our already very low emissions. It is operational.”

None of the plaintiff’s attorneys returned requests for comment.