To fight cancer, EPA wants sterilizer companies to emit less

FILE - A syringe is prepared at a clinic in Norristown, Pa., Dec. 7, 2021. The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday, April 11, 2023, proposed stronger limits on ethylene oxide that is used to sterilize billions of medical devices each year but also poses a cancer risk to those who live nearby and work in plants where it is used.

Darya Minovi, a senior research analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the action overdue by “almost a decade” and said it should have gone further to require monitoring at facility fence lines so people know what is entering their neighborhoods. Ethylene oxide is a gas used to sterilize roughly half of all medical devices and is also used to ensure the safety of certain spices and other food products. It is used to clean everything from catheters to syringes, pacemakers and plastic surgical gowns. Brief exposure isn't considered a danger, but breathing it long term elevates the risk of breast cancer and lymphoma, according to the agency.

Public concern grew. Sterigenics shuttered a medical sterilization plant in a Chicago suburb after monitoring found emissions spikes in nearby neighborhoods. They eventuallyIn 2022, the EPA laid out the risk faced by residents who live near medical sterilization facilities. In Laredo, Texas, for example, residents and activists fought to clean up a sterilization facility run by Missouri-based Midwest Sterilization Corp.

Scott Whitaker, president and CEO of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, said medical sterilizers provide a vital service and many devices “cannot be sterilized by another method.” He said the EPA’s risk assessment overstates the threat employees face and undervalues the protections they are already provided.

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To fight cancer, EPA wants sterilizer companies to emit lessThe Environmental Protection Agency proposed Tuesday to limit the use of the chemical ethylene oxide after finding higher than expected cancer risk at facilities that use it to sterilize billions of medical devices each year
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To fight cancer, EPA wants sterilizer companies to emit lessThe Environmental Protection Agency proposed Tuesday to limit the use of the chemical ethylene oxide after finding higher than expected cancer risk at facilities that use it to sterilize billions of medical devices each year. The EPA says its proposal will reduce ethylene oxide emissions from 86 medical sterilization facilities across the United States by roughly 80%. The companies will also have to measure the chemical, which is classified as a pesticide, in the air. The proposed change is based on EPA research that finds that as many as one in every ten workers in sterilization plants who is exposed to ethylene oxide could develop cancer, over and above their usual risk. But was does Judge Kacsmark say? Isn’t it up to him now?
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