The EPA has released new rules to curb emissions of a cancer-causing gas used to fumigate about half of all sterile medical products in the U.S. -- but environmental advocates and legislators say they're not enough.
before. The agency updated a key number used to assess risks from the chemical.The report, called the, said there were 109 census tracts in about 20 communities across the U.S. that had higher cancer risks from airborne toxic chemicals than the agency considered acceptable.
Most of that risk was driven by ethylene oxide. Three of those census tracts were in the metro Atlanta area -- two in Fulton County, near Smyrna, northwest of Atlanta, and another in Covington, east of Atlanta. Both areas are near facilities that use ethylene oxide gas for sterilization. This new rule applies to facilities that make ethylene oxide. A separate standard covers emissions from commercial sterilizers. The EPA is expected to announce plans to revise rules on theAbout half of the census tracts flagged by the National Air Toxics Assessment report as having higher-than-acceptable cancer risks because of ethylene oxide are near commercial sterilizing facilities, and the other half are near chemical plants, according to Mike Koerber, deputy director of EPA’s Office of Air andOne example of an impacted community is Kanawha County, WV, which is near facilities that make ethylene oxide. There, the EPA has estimated that cancer risks across five census tracts range from 70 to 335 cases for every million people exposed to ethylene oxide emissions over a lifetime. Other manufacturing hot spots are in Texas and Louisiana. By law, the EPA is required to review and update these standards every 8 years, but the agency was behind schedule. This is the first update to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for the MON since 2006. It is under a court order to finalize the rule by March 2020. The first part of the process requires the EPA to estimate risks to communities. In a second step, the EPA reviews available technology to manage these emissions to see if more could be done to control them. In its review, the EPA says it found nine facilities that release ethylene oxide from vents, storage tanks, and equipment leaks. The agency has proposed new controls for these problem areas. But it doesn’t require fence-line air monitoring, which is periodic air testing around the perimeter of a facility. This kind of air testing alerts companies when emissions are present in outdoor air and spreading into the community.“These are commonsense measures,” Cheuse says. “Communities have called for years for that. It assures protection for public health and safety and really strengthens compliance.” Cheuse also says more could be done to improve leak detection and repair, including optical imaging, which uses special cameras to detect chemical plumes, that should have been included in the proposed rule. The Ethylene Oxide Panel of the American Chemistry Council, an industry group, said in a statement Friday that it will review the EPA proposal. “Ethylene oxide is a versatile and valuable compound that’s used to help make countless everyday products,’’ the statement said. “We understand and appreciate the concerns that people have about the air they breathe. No one should have to question whether the air they breathe is clean. That’s why companies that make and work with ethylene oxide are actively investing in research and cutting-edge product stewardship technologies — so that we can continue to help protect the health of our communities. As a result of these actions, industrial ethylene oxide emissions have already fallen nationwide by over 80% since 2002.”, U.S. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, both Democrats from Illinois, were critical of the proposed rule. “We are alarmed that the agency is even considering rubber stamping weak standards that would continue to expose our constituents to elevated cancer risks. It is also unacceptable that EPA is failing to propose fence-line monitoring after dangerous malfunctions have been reported at EtO [ethylene oxide] facilities,” they write.
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