As the lawsuits pile up over a meningitis outbreak in Southwest Virginia, a new legal theory is emerging.

Were the pain-relieving steroids that have been linked to the outbreak — produced by a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts — contaminated by a waste recycling plant that sits next door to New England Compounding Center?

Here’s an account of that possibility, raised in lawsuits filed recently in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.