EPA: Sterilization chemical poses cancer risk

WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is warning residents who live near medical sterilizing plants in 13 states and Puerto Rico about potential health risks from emissions of ethylene oxide, a chemical widely used in their operations.

Laredo, Texas; Ardmore, Oklahoma; and Lakewood, Colorado, are among the communities facing the highest risk from ethylene oxide emissions, the EPA said Wednesday.

The agency has notified 23 commercial sterilizers — 19 in the continental U.S. and four in Puerto Rico — that their operations pose an elevated risk of cancer and other ailments.

Ethylene oxide is used to clean everything from catheters to syringes, pacemakers and plastic surgical gowns.

While short-term or infrequent exposure to ethylene oxide does not appear to pose a health risk, the EPA said long-term or lifetime exposure to the chemical could lead to a variety of health impacts, including lymphoma and breast cancer. The EPA said it is working with commercial sterilizers to take appropriate steps to reduce emissions.

The Ethylene Oxide Sterilization Association, an industry group, said in a statement that ethylene oxide has been used for decades by the health care community.

In many cases there are no practical alternatives available to ethylene oxide, the group said, adding that use of less effective cleaning methods “could introduce the real risks of increased morbidity and mortality” at hospitals throughout the country.

Besides medical cleaners, ethylene oxide is used in a range of products and to decontaminate some food products. Two of the 23 facilities targeted by the EPA, in Hanover and Jessup, Maryland, sterilize spices.

Other commercial sterilizers cited by the EPA are located in Groveland, Florida; Salisbury, Maryland.; Taunton, Massachusetts; Columbus, Nebraska; Linden and Franklin, New Jersey; Erie and Zelienople, Pennsylvania; Memphis and New Tazewell, Tennessee; Athens, Texas; Sandy, Utah; and Richmond, Virginia.