Sterilizer plants release a cancer-causing gas. The Biden administration will make them cut those emissions by 90 percent

The Biden administration is cutting down on emissions of a cancer-causing chemical released by companies that sterilize medical devices and other products.

Plants that sterilize medical devices and other products, such as spices, release a chemical called ethylene oxide, which has been linked to white blood cell cancers and increased breast cancer risk in women.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says communities surrounding 23 plants nationwide have elevated cancer risks, with some posing “exceptionally high risks.”

But the agency released a rule Thursday that will force plants to slash their emissions, and it says it expects that the rule will cut the plants’ ethylene oxide releases by more than 90 percent. 

“This final rule to sharply cut toxic emissions of ethylene oxide responds to the ambition set forth by President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a written statement. 

“We’ve arrived at a historically strong rule that will protect the most exposed communities from toxic air pollution while also ensuring that there will be a process that safeguards our nation’s critical supply of sterilized medical equipment,” he added. 

Environmental and health advocates, however, say the rule does not fully address the issue. They have called for the agency to also address pollution coming from off-site warehouses where medical devices treated with ethylene oxide are stored. 

Asked about this, an administration official told reporters Wednesday that the agency would need more information on things like their level of emissions and how those emissions can be reduced.

The official said the agency was planning to take additional steps to gather that information and could regulate warehouses in the future.

The EPA is also giving the industry more time to adjust to the rule than when it was first proposed last year.

At that time, it said companies would have 18 months to comply. Now, it says that the largest facilities will have two years to comply, while smaller facilities will have three years, with a possible additional yearlong extension.

A group called Stop Sterigenics, which formed in opposition to a now-shuttered plant in Illinois, called the exclusion of warehouses a “glaring omission” and described the extended compliance timeline as “delaying meaningful action.” The group also said that the rule lacks an independent enforcement mechanism – leaving enforcement to the states — air monitoring in communities.

“It’s devastating to see the human toll of regulatory loopholes,” Urszula Tanouye the group’s scientific advisor, said in the statement.

Meanwhile, the industry has pushed back on the EPA’s efforts. A trade group said last year that the proposed — and now extended — timeline was too short, and also accused the agency of overstating the chemical’s toxicity.

It is expected to cost $313 million to comply with for the nation’s 88 existing and two planned facilities using the substance. 

The rule is expected to reduce cancer risks for the 19,000 people who are currently exposed to the toxic chemical in concentrations that bring their risk of cancer to levels considered unacceptable by the agency.

Updated at 3:02 pm.