WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is warning residents who live near medical sterilizing plants in 13 states and Puerto Rico about potential health risks from emissions of ethylene oxide, a chemical widely used in their operations.
Ethylene oxide is used to clean everything from catheters to syringes, pacemakers and plastic surgical gowns. Laredo, one of the communities targeted by the EPA notice, is a border city where the vast majority of residents are Latino and more than a quarter live in poverty. Missouri-based Midwest Sterilization Corp. operates a sterilization plant in Laredo. The company also owns a plant in Jackson, Missouri that is on EPA’s watch list.
In many cases. there are no practical alternatives currently available to ethylene oxide, the group said, adding that use of less effective cleaning methods “could introduce the real risks of increased morbidity and mortality’' at hospitals throughout the country. Scott Whitaker, president and CEO of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, another industry group, applauded EPA “for its forthrightness about what it does and doesn’t know” about EtO, but added: “It’s critical that the EPA get this right.″