For the last 50 years, EPA has buckled to pressure from the chemical industry, and basically done nothing to protect millions of Americans from breathing a life-threatening, cancer-causing chemical known as “ethylene oxide” (ETO). Along the way, EPA even repeatedly violated federal law – the “Clean Air Act” – by refusing to periodically make rules necessary to protect Americans against dangerous chemicals like ETO.
Let me say that again: EPA repeatedly violated the law. And it did so to benefit the corporations that profit from making, selling, using, and polluting with ETO.
Finally, on March 14, 2024, after being pressured by a lawsuit from environmental champion, Earthjustice, to force EPA to simply obey the law and protect us from ETO, EPA announced a rule requiring that US sterilization plants reduce their ETO emissions by 90%. ETO gas is used in the sterilization process to kill living things like bacteria, for example, found on the medical and other devices being sterilized.