A company specializing in medical equipment sterilization will pay a $587,800 penalty to the South Coast Air Quality Management District to settle a series of violations resulting from the emission of excessive levels of a cancer-causing gas at its facilities in Vernon and Ontario, according to the AQMD.
South Coast AQMD officials designated Sterigenics facilities as “potentially high risk” two years ago after air quality monitors in the area showed high amounts of a carcinogen called ethylene oxide. Long-term exposure to the flammable and colorless gas, which is used in the sterilization process at the facilities, can lead to an increased risk of lymphoid and breast cancers.
Under California law, a facility can be designated “potentially high risk” if emissions could exceed a “cancer risk threshold greater than 100 chances in a million.” The AQMD’s initial data in 2022 indicated workers at Sterigenics in Vernon and those at adjacent facilities could have a cancer risk as much as 20 times higher.
The concentrations of ethylene oxide detected near Sterigenics dropped off significantly within a few hundred feet of the facility and were “within background levels” in the closest neighborhood, according to AQMD at the time. Sterigenics is located near 49th Street and Gifford Avenue in Vernon and at 687 Wanamaker Ave. in Ontario.
Sterigenics made improvements to both facilities to reduce health risks as part of the “high risk” designation. The measures included additional air monitoring, improved air pollution control systems, and a forced reduction of its operations anytime ethylene oxide levels exceeded certain thresholds. Sterigenics in Vernon has been forced to reduce its operations by 20% twice in the past two years, according to AQMD’s website.
The Ontario facility, meanwhile, had to curtail its operations by 100% in April 2023 for nearly a week due to high ethylene oxide levels, but it has maintained relatively low levels since then, the website showed.
The penalty is the latest in an ongoing crackdown against ethylene oxide emitters in California and nationwide. The South Coast AQMD began to scrutinize ethylene oxide in 2022 after the U.S. EPA announced it would revisit its own regulation of the chemical.
Last year, the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health levied a $838,800 fine against Parter Sterilization Services in Carson for failing to protect its employees from ethylene oxide exposure.
