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September 20, 2022 | In the News: San Francisco Chronicle

Lawsuit threatened over EtO emissions, Council votes for air monitors

Raul Garcia, Legislative Director, Policy & Legislation, Earthjustice: “The consequences are very real … because what we are seeing is direct impacts to those communities and to those very children. I think the EPA needs to learn from those communities like the one in Laredo that is standing up for themselves. They need to realize this issue is not going away. The community continues to put pressure on them, and we’ll take them to court if we have to.”

September 20, 2022 | Legal Document

NOI Ethylene Oxide Emmissions (Sept 2022)

Earthjustice, on behalf of environmental and health advocacy groups, sent a 60-day Notice of Intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the agency’s inaction to regulate harmful carcinogenic air emissions from ethylene oxide facilities as the law required. The Clean Air Act directs the EPA to review its ethylene oxide standards every eight years but the agency has repeatedly missed this deadline; first in 2014 and again in April 2022. The EPA admits the chemical is 60 times more toxic than previously estimated and that facilities that emit ethylene oxide, including commercial sterilizers and chemical manufacturers, pose an elevated cancer risk to nearby communities. Children are particularly sensitive to ethylene oxide when exposed.

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