Emissions of a colorless, carcinogenic gas produced by facilities that sterilize medical equipment disproportionately affect low-income and minority neighborhoods but pose a risk to more than 14 million Americans, according to a report released Tuesday by the Union of Concerned Scientists.
\nEthylene oxide is largely produced by commercial sterilizers, which tend to be located in buildings that do not look like the average American\u2019s image of large industrial facilities, to the point that people are often unaware they share a neighborhood with them, according to Darya Minovi, a senior researcher with the group and the report\u2019s author.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s particularly the case with commercial sterilizers. It might not necessarily be the case with some of the larger chemical manufacturing facilities that emit ethylene oxide and also a number of other substances, but commercial sterilizers often just look like large warehouses,\u201d she told The Hill in an interview. \u201cThey don\u2019t have very large stacks, it\u2019s not clear what\u2019s going on inside the facility, and ethylene oxide is of course, a colorless gas, so you might not even be aware that it\u2019s being emitted.\u201d
\nCompounding the issue, she noted, many of the emissions are so-called fugitive emissions, those produced unintentionally through leaking valves or equipment.
\nOf 104 facilities analyzed by the group, about 14.2 million people live within five miles of one, and there are 10,000 schools and child care facilities within the same radius. Those near child care facilities, Minovi noted, pose a particular hazard because ethylene oxide \u201cis a mutagen, meaning that breathing it can damage your cells\u2019 DNA, and kids\u2019 cells are dividing more rapidly than adults\u2019 do,\u201d she said.
\nThe report identified a total of 12 communities as sterilizer hot spots, or those where residents are exposed to at least two commercial sterilizers within 10 miles. On average, residents who are people of color, low-income and do not speak English as their first language had higher exposure within five miles than the U.S. average.
\nMinovi also pointed to what she called particularly egregious conditions in Puerto Rico, which has seven total commercial sterilizers within five miles of a total of 413,000 people, more than one-tenth of the island\u2019s population. The only U.S. states with more commercial sterilizers are California and Texas, which are the nation\u2019s two most populous states, compared to Puerto Rico\u2019s population of just over 3 million.
\nA forthcoming Environmental Protection Agency rule, expected this month, is projected to reduce the allowable emissions from commercial sterilizers. However, Minovi noted, this will regulate only part of the problem.
\n\u201cThis is just one class of facilities that emit ethylene oxide,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are six or seven other types of facilities that emit ethylene oxide that still need updated standards,\u201d such as hospital sterilizers and miscellaneous organic chemical manufacturing plants.<\/p>\n
Thehill<\/p>\n
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