The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is asking Sterigenics, a Cobb County company that has come under fire in the past few years, to report its releases of a toxic gas.
The company sterilizes medical equipment using ethylene oxide, which can cause cancer.
It’s one of more than 30 companies the EPA sent letters to earlier this month, notifying them that the agency plans to start requiring them to report releases of ethylene oxide to the Toxics Release Inventory, a federal database.
Sterigenics has been under scrutiny following an EPA assessment finding that ethylene oxide was more dangerous than the agency had previously thought. In 2019, WebMD and Georgia Health News found that the federal agency and the state of Georgia had failed to notify nearby residents of the risk.
Since then, Sterigenics installed new controls on its Cobb County plant to limit more emissions.
