Sterigenics disputes risk

Medical device cleaner says Kingsbury facility is safe despite report

Sterigenics, which operates a medical device sterilization plant outside of Queensbury, says the facility does not pose a public health risk after a federal report issued last month was highly critical of toxic emissions at two of the company’s facilities outside of Chicago.

Like dozens of medical sterilization plants that Sterigenics operates around the country, the Queensbury plant uses ethylene oxide, which the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health considers a potential occupational carcinogen, which is a workplace chemical that can cause cancer.

Sterigenics, which employs 30 people at its Queensbury facility, is a subsidiary of Sotera Health in Broadview Heights, Ohio.

“We are confident that all of our facilities operate safely without presenting health concerns for any communities,” Kristin Gibbs, chief marketing officer at Sotera Health, told the Times Union.

Ethylene oxide is the most common chemical used to sterilize surgical kits and it is also commonly used to sterilize other medical equipment, which is loaded onto pallets and sprayed with ethylene oxide in special chambers.

“We use state-of-the-art emissions control technologies for the ethylene oxide sterilization services we provide,” Gibbs said. “Our sterilization services are critical for safe health care and infection prevention.”

Last month, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services issued a report that concluded that “an elevated cancer risk exists for residents and off-site workers” in Willowbrook, Ill., where Sterigenics operates

two sterilization facilities.

“These elevated risks present a public health hazard to these populations,” the report, which was done by HHS’ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, concluded.

Willowbrook is a small suburb of Chicago with a population of 8,500, although 19,271 people live within one mile of the Sterigenics buildings, a radius that also encompasses four schools and a day care center, according to the HHS report.

After the publication of the report, Sterigenics defended its environmental and public health track record and said that the company was in “full compliance with its environmental permit” and did voluntary upgrades at the Willowbrook facilities that reduce ethylene oxide emissions by 90 percent.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has also been involved. Two years ago the EPA dramatically changed its view on the potential cancer risk of ethylene oxide and began meeting with HHS earlier this year about potential sites that should be studied more because of the changes. The Sterigenics site in Willowbrook was one of those that was studied more closely.

“Sterigenics understands that, based on a recent assessment by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the U.S. EPA regional staff believes Sterigenics’ Willowbrook operations may present possible health risk,” Sterigenics said in a statement issued Monday to the Times Union. “Sterigenics has serious concerns about whether the ATSDR report accurately ref lects risk in Willowbrook.”

The Willowbrook facilities use at least 10 times more ethylene oxide than the Queensbury facility, which is technically located in the town of Kingsbury, just outside of Queensbury.

Gibbs, the Sotera executive, said that the Queensbury sterilization plant is also subject to higher emission standards than even the federal EPA air requirements.

“The Sterigenics Queensbury facility meets and exceeds stringent New York state air permit requirements,” Gibbs said.

Town of Kingsbury officials were concerned last year about what could happen at the Sterigenics plant in the case of a power outage.

The local Sterigenics plant manager, Justin Fitzpatrick, as well as an environmental health and safety executive with the company, Kevin Wagner, spoke to the Kingsbury Town Board back in August 2017 about what happens at the plant during an outage. They told the board that the facility was safe, even during such an event.

“Mr. Wagner stated there are plants all over the world like the plant in Kingsbury and outages have occurred in the past, sometimes as long as a week,” according to the minutes from the Aug. 21 Kingsbury Town Board meeting. “Because they run under a vacuum with the gas in the chamber, they can hold for a long time.”