Sterigenics’ medical sterilizer plant in Illinois has drawn national attention for complaints by locals about ethylene oxide emissions, but plants in Louisiana and Texas release far more of the cancer-causing gas, Amena H. Saiyid writes.
- The EPA decided in late 2016 that the gas is much more dangerous than previously thought—an assessment that industry groups and some state regulators dispute. A separate federal report found that emissions from the Sterigenics plant in Willowbrook, Ill. could be harmful to public health.
- But a Bloomberg Environment analysis of the U.S. EPA’s air toxic emissions data shows that the top 10 ethylene ...