ATLANTA — On Dec. 27, the The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its plan to increase their Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) reporting requirements to include 29 sterilization facilities that are not currently reporting their use of a cancer-causing chemical. One of them is located in Atlanta, GA.
Sterigenics, a medical sterilization company in Smyrna is one of the 29 contract sterilization facilities that do not report their releases of the toxic chemical, ethylene oxide (EtO).
The toxic chemical is used on about half the medical products in the U.S. that need sterilizing, according to industry estimates. It’s also used to make other chemicals, like antifreeze.
EPA’s goal with the TRI reporting requirements is to shed some light on potential exposures from chemical use.
“For too long, many communities in this country, particularly those with environmental justice concerns, have been at risk of exposure to EtO without even knowing it,” said Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention Michal Freedhoff in a press release.
In 2016, EPA moved EtO from a list of chemicals that probably could cause cancer to a list of those that definitely caused cancer. It was determined to be 30 times more likely to cause certain cancers than scientists had once known.
This is not the first time Sterigenics' use of EtO has been signaled out for not being reported.
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In 2019 WebMD and Georgia Health News released an article informing several metro Atlanta communities that they had been exposed to the cancer-causing chemical.
Georgians impacted by EtO found out about the chemical a year after it happened because of the WebMD article. According to WebMD, the EPA and state regulators never released information about high-risk spots across the country.
Local news outlets, including 11Alive, followed suit and reported on the issue.
More than four dozen employees have filed a lawsuit, alleging a medical sterilization company and an associated company exposed them to dangerous levels of a known carcinogenic.
The suit, filed May 19 in Cobb County, names Sterigenics, its parent company, Sotera Health, ConMed and others as defendants, and seeks damages for alleged "ethylene-oxide poisoning."
Most involve people who live or once lived near the plants, who claim the gas made them sick, caused cancer, birth defects or death.
Workers in facilities that use EtO and people in communities - including historically underserved communities - located adjacent to these facilities have the highest chance of being exposed to EtO according to the EPA.
Children are expected to be more susceptible to the toxic effects of EtO.
The 29 facilities that are being asked to report their EtO use are likely to exceed the 10,000 pounds per year "otherwise used” TRI reporting threshold for EtO.
The determination to extend TRI reporting requirements to these 29 facilities is part of an ongoing effort to increase publicly available information on EtO releases and other waste management activities.