VERNON, Ca. (TND) —Imagine finding out your health may be threatened by an invisible gas that was leaked into your community. Spotlight on America has new information about just how many families across America are being exposed to ethylene oxide, a gas used in facilities that sterilize medical equipment. We've been reporting about the issue since 2020. Today, experts still say federal agencies are still dragging their feet when it comes to protecting communities from dangerous exposures.
Industry looms large in Vernon, California, a town just south of Los Angeles, where a massive industrial park sits steps away from a dense neighborhood.
Among the businesses taking up residence there is a Sterigenics plant. There, truckloads of medical equipment are sterilized using a colorless, odorless gas called ethylene oxide. Also known as EtO, the gas is used to clean billions of medical devices in this country, by some estimates, it's used to sterilize about 40% of the devices that require such cleaning.
But there's a problem. The gas, known to cause cancer, can also make its way into the air surrounding the facility.
According to the EPA, long-term exposure to EtO increases the risk of cancers of the white blood cells, including:
- non-Hodgkin lymphoma,
- myeloma, and
- lymphocytic leukemia.
The EPA also says studies show that long-term exposure to EtO increases the risk of breast cancer in females, and it's believed that children are more susceptible to the health impacts from the gas.
When it comes to the risk for communities, the EPA states, "People who live near facilities that release EtO to the outdoor air may be exposed to EtO, depending on how much EtO is released and how close they live to the facility. The greatest cancer risk is for people who have lived near a facility releasing EtO into the air for their entire lifetime."
That's a concern for residents like Jamila Cervantes, who has lived near the Sterigenics facility in Vernon their whole life.
"My family lives here, my friends live here," they told us. "There's no way that I don't feel concerned about them."
Spotlight on America discovered there are a number of schools close to the facility, including an elementary school less than half a mile away.
We dug into the data from the Los Angeles County Health Department, which has been monitoring the emissions of ethylene oxide from the plant. Health officials say measurements of EtO in the residential community near Sterigenics are similar to other parts of the Los Angeles region, but in one site just outside the facility, the concentration of EtO measured was more than 30 times higher than what the EPA would consider an unacceptable risk for cancer, potentially posing a risk to those who work in close proximity to the plant.
This problem extends well beyond Southern California.
We found out there are more than 700 ethylene oxide related lawsuits in courts across the US, including ones in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois and New Mexico.
Many of them followed a blockbuster verdict in the first trial of its kind. This fall, a court in Illinois awarded $363 million to a woman who claimed her cancer was caused by EtO emissions coming from a sterilization facility in Willowbrook, Illinois. Sterigenics has since discontinued work at the site. Spotlight on America visited Willowbrook in 2020 and spoke with other plaintiffs and attorneys pursuing litigation against Sterigenics. You can view that story here.
Amid a growing national conversation about EtO, the EPA this summer identified 23 sites across the country operated by multiple companies that are at high risk for potentially dangerous emissions.
They are located in:
- Lakewood, CO
- Groveland, FL
- Taunton, MA
- Hanover, MD
- Jessup, MD
- Salisbury, MD
- Jackson, MO
- Columbus, NE
- Franklin , NJ
- Linden, NJ
- Ardmore, OK
- Erie, PA
- Zelienople, PA
- Añasco, PR
- Fajardo, PR
- Salinas, PR
- Villalba, PR
- New Tazewell, TN
- Memphis, TN
- Athens, TX
- Laredo, TX
- Sandy, UT
- Henrico, VA
The EPA started informing residents of the concern in these communities, including holding a public information session in Laredo, Texas, where officials admitted that they have learned that EtO is far more toxic than they had originally thought.
They also held a national public webinar about the topic, which you can watch below.
As the agency starts to take steps to inform residents of the risks, experts say they're woefully overdue on concrete action to protect communities. Among them, Genna Reed,director of policy analysis in the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
"We know there are communities across the country that have suffered too long and are only just learning about the fact that their facility is one of the highest risk in this country," Reed told us.According to Reed, the EPA missed its own deadlines for action, and still hasn't come up with a proposed rule for commercial sterilization facilities that would govern emissions, require testing of the air, and enforce new regulations.
She told us the clock is ticking to ensure communities are protected, especially because these facilities are often located near vulnerable populations.
"EPA needs to make sure they're holding companies accountable and not letting ethylene oxide be released from these facilities into these communities, many of which are communities of color, low income communities," she told us. "Until there's a proposed rule out that will require facilities to cut these emissions, people are still at risk of breathing in this incredibly dangerous cancer causing chemical."
Spotlight on America asked EPA for a timeline on that new rule, and the agency told us they will release it before the end of 2022. You can read our full Q&A with the agency at the bottom of this article.
The EPA will be under pressure to meet its deadline. In September, Earthjustice, along with the Union of Concerned Scientists, sent a 60-day notice of intent to sue the agency over inaction to control carcinogenic air emissions, saying the EPA is required to review EtO standards every eight years, but has failed to do so twice.
As the EPA works on its rule, there is simultaneous work being done by the Food & Drug Administration. The FDA is working on ways to reduce emission levels, as well as working with companies to develop new sterilization methods that would replace the use of EtO.
Back in Vernon, the LA County Health Department is telling residents that they don't need to take action, saying the facility is working with officials to try "identify additional actions to immediately lower emissions." Sterigenics told Spotlight on America that it is confident its operations in Vernon pose no threat to the community, and the plant has "outperformed" all regulatory standards for decades. You can read their full statement at the bottom of this article.
That doesn't offer comfort to residents like Jamila Cervantes, who told us they feel the community is being forgotten. In addition to a potential threat of EtO, the very same community has been fighting environmental injustice from a nearby battery plant, which contaminated their soil with lead, leading to a massive cleanup project residents themselves are having to pay for.
Until concrete action is taken, their family must live with a constant reminder of a potential danger sitting right outside their doorstep.
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This report is part of a series of stories Spotlight on America has been working on for years.
To view our prior reporting, and read more details, visit the following links:
Invisible gas may pose a cancer risk in towns, but experts say the EPA is failing to warn
Congress, lawsuits call for accountability surrounding cancer-causing gas
Minority and low-income communities may face greatest threat from cancer-causing gas
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Sterigenics offered this statement for our story:
“As the EPA has acknowledged, the use of ethylene oxide (EO) for the sterilization of medical devices is essential to the U.S. health care system. Sterigenics is pleased that the EPA is reviewing and updating the standards that regulate the usage of EO and we encourage the agency to adopt new standards that are better aligned with the best EO control technologies currently available.
“Sterigenics is confident that the facility poses no health risk to employees or the surrounding Vernon community, as was reiterated in the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s assessment. We have consistently outperformed all applicable regulatory standards for decades and are implementing industry-leading emissions control enhancements at our Vernon facility to further improve our already safe operations. We look forward to continuing to safely sterilize over 45 million essential medical devices and supplies at our Vernon facility each year.”
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Spotlight on America submitted a series of questions to the EPA regarding a timeline for the rule change and what it may include. You can read the full exchange below:
The EPA has been proactively warning communities near ETO sterilization facilities. Have all 23 on the high priority list been informed of the risk?
All communities have been notified and EPA has been working with stakeholders to plan engagement and outreach. EPA has conducted public meetings in thirteen of then twenty-three communities and is preparing for future meetings in seven communities. Three community meetings in Puerto Rico are postponed due to hurricane recovery.
What is the EPA doing to address the risks in those top 23 communities?
Reducing the amount of EtO that people are exposed to will reduce risk. EPA is committed to working with environmental agencies at the territory, state, and local levels and engaging with facilities to reduce the amount of EtO that is emitted to the air. Soon, EPA will propose updates to our regulation for commercial sterilizers to reduce EtO emissions. At the same time, EPA will release proposed limits on how EtO can be used within sterilization facilities with the goal of reducing risks to workers who handle EtO and those who are exposed in other ways like working or attending school near a facility.
Our sources have told us that EPA is working on a new MON rule to address ethylene oxide at sterilization facilities, possibly before the end of the year. Could you please provide a timeline of when we can expect that rule to be released? Will the rule include lower limits for ETO emissions? Will the rule include guidelines for monitoring emissions not only near the facilities, but in neighboring communities?
EPA plans to finalize the Miscellaneous Organic NESHAP (MON) Reconsideration later this year. Details will be available upon signature.
According to our research, the EPA last reviewed the sterilizer rule in 2006 - and is required to review it every 8 years but has not done so. How does the agency respond to the missed deadline - and what's the status of that work now?
EPA has been working to address emissions of ethylene oxide since 2018, when our National Air Toxics Assessment identified a number of areas where risks from EtO were potentially elevated.
EPA is taking action to reduce EtO emissions and risks in communities including:
- Reviewing Clean Air Act regulations to further reduce EtO emissions from industrial facilities, particularly rules to control air toxic emissions from commercial sterilizers and facilities that manufacture chemicals.
- EPA will be proposing revisions to air pollution regulations for commercial sterilizers in 2022.
- In August 2020, EPA published revised regulations for Miscellaneous Organic Chemical Manufacturing facilities that require additional controls on certain equipment and processes that emit EtO, in order to reduce risk to surrounding communities.
- EPA is continuing to gather additional information on emissions of ethylene oxide from the chemical manufacturing industry. In January 2022, EPA sent a request for information to eight chemical manufacturing entities subject to air emission standards.
- This information will help EPA look for opportunities to reduce ethylene oxide emissions as it reviews chemical manufacturing regulations (such as the synthetic organic manufacturing emission standards) and as it identifies opportunities for near-term EtO reductions.
- Working with environmental agencies at the Territory, state, Tribal, and local levels to reduce EtO emissions.
- Expanding environmental reporting requirements for sterilization facilities.
- Reevaluating how EtO is used within sterilization facilities with the goal of reducing risks to workers who handle EtO and those who are exposed in other ways. EPA will be doing this reevaluation using the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, or FIFRA.
- Conducting research to better understand and measure EtO.
- Assessing compliance and pursuing enforcement as appropriate.
Where does this issue fall when it comes to priorities for the agency?
As EPA pursues its mission to protect human health and the environment, addressing ethylene oxide (EtO) is a priority for the Agency. While EPA regulates EtO under a number of different environmental laws, the Agency’s current efforts to reduce this chemical’s impact fall into two main categories: air emissions of EtO and use of EtO as a pesticide.
EPA is reviewing its current air regulations that limit the amount of EtO certain types of industries release into the outdoor air to determine whether legal standards for EtO emissions to air can be further strengthened. There are ways industry can reduce emissions, and EPA is working with state, local and tribal air agency partners and with companies to identify opportunities to reduce emissions faster than national regulations can achieve.
The Agency also is developing pesticide risk reduction requirements to protect workers who use EtO and people who live in surrounding communities. In addition, EPA regularly provides state agencies information on measuring EtO in air. The Agency also is conducting and supporting research to improve our ability to measure EtO content in outdoor air.
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