The air quality regulator for much of Southern California is risking public health by allowing emissions of ethylene oxide, a highly toxic gas associated with lymphoid and breast cancer, at levels far above the federal cancer risk guidelines for the chemical, warn environmental health experts.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) says that it is bound by law to use health values adopted by the state more than 35 years ago to guide acceptable ethylene oxide emissions at three medical device sterilization facilities in its region. But other experts, including a former AQMD board member, argue that the agency already has the authority it needs to use a far stricter health guideline adopted by the federal EPA in 2016.
