Feds may require self reporting from Sterigenics on use of ethylene oxide gas

Since 2018, controversial medical sterilization facility, Sterigenics, has remained under fire in the Cobb County community since citizens discovered the company was emitting cancer causing chemicals in our own backyards.

The Environmental Protection Agency put Sterigenics, and several others across the country, on notice earlier this month that the EPA could mandate self-reporting of toxic emissions of ethylene oxide and ethylene glycol emissions to the federal government beginning in 2022. Ethylene oxide is a flammable, colorless gas used to sterilize medical equipment and was officially categorized by the EPA as a cancer-causing agent in 2016.

Sterigenics was asked by the EPA to report its releases of the toxic gas. The Cobb County company is one of over 30 companies the EPA sent letters to notify them that the agency plans to start requiring them to report releases of ethylene oxide to the Toxics Release Inventory, a federal database.

Sterigenics has been under scrutiny following an EPA assessment finding that ethylene oxide was more dangerous than the agency had previously thought. In 2019, WebMD and Georgia Health News found that the federal agency and the state of Georgia had failed to notify nearby residents of the risk. Since then, Sterigenics installed new controls on its Cobb County plant to limit more emissions.

An Oct.13 press release from the EPA says Michael Freedhoff, the agency’s assistant administrator, sent Sterigenics’ facility manager Daryl Mosby a letter  on Oct. 1. Freedhoff pointed out to Sterigenics that more than 200,000 people live within a five-mile radius of the facility, which includes 13,683 children under the age of 5, and at least 50 schools. Freedhoff said children are more susceptible to being harmed from exposure to ethylene oxide, a mutagenic chemical that can change the DNA in a cell. Sterigenics’ proximity to such a large population is what concerns EPA officials, according to the letter.

Sterigenics has until Oct. 31 to respond to the EPA before the agency makes its final decision, according to the notice.

In a 2018 federal report, the EPA flagged Sterigenics for the first time saying the Smyrna factory releases airborne toxins that cause an elevated risk of cancer in surrounding neighborhoods. Media coverage in 2019 highlighted the increased cancer exposure which ignited community outrage and scrutiny, with many that live in nearby communities demanding its permanent closure.

Although it was legally authorized for years to use toxic gas to sterilize medical equipment at its location near Atlanta Road, Sterigenics’ continued presence in the community is not welcomed after the community learned of its cancer-causing effects on residents who live near the plant.

The facility had stopped operating for a time but resumed working in early 2020, to the dismay of those in the community.

Pointing to its ill-effects and alleging that the ethylene oxide emissions caused their property values to plummet, Homeowners filed a lawsuit against Sterigenics last year. The company was also named as a defendant in a separate lawsuit filed in Cobb County on Aug. 21 by warehouse employees who claim they got sick after handling medical equipment sterilized by Sterigenics.