Herbert L. White
THE CHARLOTTE POST
A Charlotte environmental advocacy group is challenging Trump administration exemptions of a cancer-causing chemical used to sterilize medical devices.
CleanAIRE NC is among the plaintiffs represented suing to block the waiver of 2024 Environmental Protection Agency standards that lower cancer risks for people near medical sterilizer facilities by more than 90%. Studies show sterilization of medical equipment using substitutes for ethylene oxide can be done safely without raising costs. The plaintiffs allege some facilities that received exemptions were already capable of complying with the 2024 standards.
One of the exemptions went to Oak Brook, Illinois-based Sterigenics, which has a facility located near predominantly Black communities in southwest Charlotte.
The lawsuit was filed last month in the District Court for the District of Columbia.
“These exemptions raise serious questions about whose health is being prioritized,” CleanAIRE NC executive director Jeffrey Robbins said in a statement. “We are talking about a known carcinogen being pumped into neighborhoods already overburdened by industrial pollution, where so many families live, learn, and play. To strip away these life-saving protections, which are already proven and working in facilities across the country, is a profound betrayal of the public trust.”
The Trump administration granted two-year renewable exemptions for 40 sterilizer facilities nationwide, including nine located in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. All of them are located near low-income residential areas that are predominantly Black or brown.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced last year a process inviting regulated facilities to seek Clean Air Act “presidential exemptions.” The agency posted instructions for submitting requests, including a dedicated email address. Operators of petrochemical plants, coal-fired power plants, coke ovens and commercial sterilizers requested exemptions.
“The law is clear, the science is clear, and the technology to control dangerous ethylene oxide pollution exists today,” said Irena Como, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is representing the plaintiffs along with Natural Resources Defense Council. “Many of these facilities have shown that they are capable of complying with stronger standards that are effective in better protecting communities, yet the Trump administration’s unlawful actions continue to create chaos at the expense of the health and safety of communities on the ground.”
In 2024 under the Biden administration, EPA strengthened regulations governing ethylene oxide emissions from commercial sterilization facilities after scientific studies showed the chemical pollutant is 60 times more toxic than previously thought. The technology to control it, the plaintiffs argue, is widely used.
“This administration is systematically looking for ways to let polluters off the hook,” said Sarah Buckley, senior attorney for NRDC. “If this abuse of authority is left unchecked, communities will pay the price in higher cancer risks. We’re challenging these cancer-causing sterilizer exemptions because people have a right to breathe safe air — and the government has a duty to enforce it.”
