DC Circuit Upholds Risk Values Underpinning Ethylene Oxide Rule

The Environmental Protection Agency defeated a challenge to its cancer risk assessments at the heart of its ethylene oxide rule, according to a Tuesday decision.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that the agency did not act arbitrarily and capriciously with its lymphoid cancer risk assessment of ethylene oxide, a chemical most commonly used for medical device sterilization and manufacturing.

Petitioners argued that the EPA ignored flaws in its modeling raised in public comment and based its final rule on shaky ground.

The EPA countered in arguments that challengers show “a fundamental misunderstanding of ...