Brenda Goodman is a senior news writer for WebMD. Andy Miller is editor and CEO of Georgia Health News. State environmental officials say a warehouse operated by a medical sterilizing company in Covington, a suburb of Atlanta, is releasing high levels of the toxic gas ethylene oxide. The state’s Environment Protection Division (EPD) has charged the company,…
Brenda Goodman is a senior news writer for WebMD. Andy Miller is editor and CEO of Georgia Health News. Story updated Illinois residents living about a half mile away from a medical sterilization facility have levels of the cancer-causing gas ethylene oxide in their blood that are about 50% higher than those who live farther…
Brenda Goodman is a senior news writer for WebMD. Andy Miller is editor and CEO of Georgia Health News. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed its first of two new rules to curb emissions of cancer-causing ethylene oxide. Environmental advocates and legislators, however, say the federal agency’s plans won’t do enough to protect people who are…
Brenda Goodman is a senior news writer for WebMD. Andy Miller is editor and CEO of Georgia Health News. Story updated 10/29 The state of Georgia and BD have reached a last-minute agreement to stem emissions of cancer-causing ethylene oxide gas at the company’s medical sterilizing facilities east of Atlanta. The agreement came just moments before…
Brenda Goodman is a senior news writer for WebMD. Andy Miller is editor and CEO of Georgia Health News. Medical device makers and federal regulators are on edge after the closure of two major sterilization facilities and the potential shuttering of a third next week. They’re warning of potential shortages of medical devices if a court…
Brenda Goodman is a senior news writer for WebMD. Andy Miller is editor and CEO of Georgia Health News. Georgia is poised to become the second U.S. state to force the shutdown of a commercial sterilization facility after air testing found high levels of toxic ethylene oxide gas in nearby neighborhoods. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr…
Brenda Goodman is a senior news writer for WebMD. Andy Miller is editor and CEO of Georgia Health News. The city of Covington has called for a company to shut down its local medical sterilization plant until it can reduce its emissions of a cancer-causing gas. In a Wednesday news release, the city said preliminary data from…
Brenda Goodman is a senior news writer for WebMD. Andy Miller is editor and CEO of Georgia Health News. A medical supply sterilizing facility east of Atlanta that is under scrutiny for toxic emissions had an eight-day leak last month of ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing substance. The City of Covington on Wednesday released a report…
Brenda Goodman is a senior news writer for WebMD. Andy Miller is editor and CEO of Georgia Health News. A Smyrna medical sterilization plant at the center of a controversy over toxic pollution will remain closed until the company meets new safety standards, Cobb County officials say. The Sterigenics facility, which sterilizes medical supplies with…
Brenda Goodman is a senior news writer for WebMD. Andy Miller is editor and CEO of Georgia Health News. In 2005, the EPA considered banning ethylene oxide in new sterilizing facilities because of the cancer risk it posed to residents who lived around the plants. “We also considered prohibiting the use of ethylene oxide for…