Environmental groups are suing President Donald Trump and his administration in federal court over their moves to exempt medical sterilization facilities using the toxic gas ethylene oxide in Georgia and other states from tighter air emissions standards.
The groups claim Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency and its administrator, Lee Zeldin, overstepped their legal authority when they allowed certain plants to temporarily skirt stricter air pollution limits.
Ethylene oxide, or EtO for short, is used to sterilize millions of pieces of medical and dental equipment each year, making it a key tool for preventing infections from dangerous bacteria. But the gas also poses threats to human health.
The EPA itself has found breathing the gas can increase the risk for certain cancers.
In a proclamation last year, Trump gave 40 sterilization facilities nationwide — including nine in Georgia — two extra years to comply with more stringent EtO emissions standards finalized under President Joe Biden. Trump claimed the extension was necessary because the technologies to meet the new limits do not exist, arguing the tougher rules would put many facilities out of business.
But in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Natural Resources Defense Council argue that’s not the case. In fact, the complaint says these technologies are “widely available” and are even used at some of the exempted facilities.
The suit was filed by the NRDC and SELC on behalf of several smaller environmental plaintiffs. One of them is Sustainable Newton, a grassroots nonprofit focused on community efforts to address climate change in Newton County, about 40 miles east of Atlanta. Newton is home to one of the exempted facilities.
The groups argue Trump’s order violated the federal Clean Air Act and claim the EPA bypassed proper rulemaking procedures to expedite the exemptions.
“This administration is systematically looking for ways to let polluters off the hook,” Sarah Buckley, a senior attorney for NRDC, said in a statement. “If this abuse of authority is left unchecked, communities will pay the price in higher cancer risks.”
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said Trump’s exemption proclamation was lawful.
“The EtO Rule would have likely forced existing sterilization facilities to close down, seriously disrupting the supply of medical equipment and undermining our national security,” Rogers said.
The EPA declined to weigh in on the lawsuit, saying it does not comment on pending litigation.
Several Georgia facilities were given exemptions, including Becton Dickinson facilities in Covington and Madison; the Sterigenics plant in Cobb County; Kendall Patient Recovery near Augusta; and a Sterilization Services of Georgia facility 15 miles west of downtown Atlanta.
EtO use has spurred dozens of lawsuits in Georgia filed by residents living near sterilization plants who allege EtO that escaped the facilities caused their cancer or other injuries.
The NRDC and SELC complaint says several members of Sustainable Newton, the Georgia plaintiff in the case, live near the BD Covington facility. As a result of the exemption, the suit says those residents can no longer obtain emissions data from the Covington plant’s continuous monitoring systems.
“Exempting sterilizer facilities from tighter emissions standards for EtO based solely on presumed compliance costs, while ignoring threats to public health and the environment, flies in the face of everything we’re working for,” Maurice Carter, the president of Sustainable Newton, said in a statement.
A spokesperson for BD, which is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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