Sterigenics still storing ethylene oxide

Cobb County ‘requested’ company remove the gas after an inspection.

Sterigenics is continuing to store a highly combustible, cancer-causing gas at the site of its shuttered plant near Smyrna, despite a request from Cobb County to remove the chemical, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.

The facility has been closed since August following public outcry over its ethylene oxide emissions.

The company is legally permitted to use the gas to sterilize medical equipment, but the chemical has come under scrutiny after the federal government reclassified it as a potent carcinogen in 2016.

In the months since Sterigenics closed, Cobb has revoked the facility’s building permit and certificate of occupancy. County officials said the plant was incorrectly categorized as a “storage” facility when it should have been listed as “high hazard industrial.”

The county and the company are now working with a thirdparty consultant to come up with a fire-safety plan that would allow issuance of the permits.

Following an inspection earlier this year, Cobb spokesman Ross Cavitt said county officials “requested” Sterigenics remove ethylene oxide from the site until a determination is made about

how much of the chemical could be stored there, and under what conditions.

“We have not had an on-site inspection since that request and do not know if Sterigenics has complied,” he wrote in an email last week.

Sterigenics said in a statement Wednesday that no ethylene oxide is being used at the plant at this time. But the statement confirmed that the chemical has not been removed.

“The only (ethylene oxide) at the facility is in drums stored in the designated safe storage area,” the statement said. “We have informed the county of the storage of those drums at the facility and they have visited the facility to observe that storage. No county official has instructed Sterigenics to remove the drums from the facility, and there is no need or code requirement to do so.”

In response to that statement, Cavitt said the county “disagrees” with Sterigenics’ assertion regarding the storage of ethylene oxide.

Janet Rau, president of Stop Sterigenics Georgia, a local grassroots organization, said the presence of ethylene oxide is what creates the “high hazard” category for which Sterigenics is not approved.

“Ethylene oxide should not be on the property until Sterigenics has met all high hazard requirements. Full stop,” Rau said. “This is illegal activity on the part of Sterigenics and the consequence of illegal activity should be that they are no longer allowed to operate a business in our county.”