This article was produced by the nonprofit journalism publication Capital & Main. It is co-published with permission.
The air quality regulator for much of Southern California is risking public health by allowing emissions of ethylene oxide, a highly toxic gas associated with lymphoid and breast cancer, at levels far above the federal cancer risk guidelines for the chemical, warn environmental health experts.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) says that it is bound by law to use health values adopted by the state more than 35 years ago to guide acceptable ethylene oxide emissions at three medical device sterilization facilities in its region. But other experts, including a former AQMD board member, argue that the agency already has the authority it needs to use a far stricter health guideline adopted by the federal EPA in 2016.
The levels of ethylene oxide being released from facilities in Vernon , Carson and Ontario that sterilize medical equipment are “way too high for public health,” said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics, an environmental advocacy group. She said it is “rubbish that South Coast [AQMD] says that they cannot use the more protective emission limits at these sterilizers.”
Earlier this year as part of an air monitoring program , the AQMD found that the three facilities were emitting far larger amounts than previously known of the highly toxic colorless and odorless gas, which is used to sterilize medical products. Homes and schools are within blocks of the Carson and Vernon sites. The AQMD set up air monitors around the three plants and required the facility operators to begin the process of installing better pollution control devices. If emission levels rise above…
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