{"id":1567658,"date":"2024-03-22T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T08:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=633633"},"modified":"2024-03-22T08:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T08:30:00","slug":"a-loophole-in-the-epas-new-sterilizer-rule-leaves-warehouse-workers-vulnerable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/03\/22\/a-loophole-in-the-epas-new-sterilizer-rule-leaves-warehouse-workers-vulnerable\/","title":{"rendered":"A loophole in the EPA\u2019s new sterilizer rule leaves warehouse workers vulnerable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
This story was produced in partnership with Atlanta News Firs<\/a><\/em>t<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thousands of warehouse workers across the U.S. are likely regularly exposed to the cancer-linked chemical ethylene oxide. More than half of the country\u2019s medical equipment is sterilized with the compound, which the EPA considers a carcinogen<\/a>. Ethylene oxide evaporates off the surface of these medical products after they\u2019ve been sterilized, creating potentially dangerous concentrations of air pollution in the buildings where they\u2019re stored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By and large, the EPA does not regulate<\/a> these buildings \u2014 in fact, regulators don\u2019t even know where most of them are. The Office of Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency in charge of worker protection that is known by its acronym, OSHA, has also done relatively little to evaluate worker exposure in these warehouses. But last week, OSHA opened a new investigation into a Georgia warehouse that stores medical devices sterilized with ethylene oxide, raising questions about whether the federal government is beginning to respond more quickly to these risks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On March 13, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Douglas County sheriff\u2019s office assisted OSHA in executing a search warrant<\/a> at a warehouse leased by the medical device company ConMed in Lithia Springs, 17 miles west of Atlanta. The surprise inspection<\/a> was initiated almost two weeks after a Grist and Atlanta News First investigation<\/a> revealed that workers employed by ConMed had been unknowingly exposed to the chemical. Ambulances were routinely called to the facility as workers convulsed from seizures, lost consciousness, and had trouble breathing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The workers sued the company in 2020, but the lawsuit was ultimately dropped earlier this year after a judge dismissed some of their claims, citing state labor laws. (Under Georgia law, once employees seek workers\u2019 compensation from the state, they are barred from suing employers separately.) ConMed denies the lawsuit\u2019s allegations that it knowingly exposed workers to ethylene oxide and maintains that no individual medical emergency can be tied to exposure to the chemical. A company representative told Grist that it is \u201ccommitted to fully complying\u201d with all applicable regulations and conducts monthly ethylene oxide testing for its employees to review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGiven our many years of full cooperation with OSHA, as well as the fact that OSHA has inspected our Lithia Springs facility five times since 2019, ConMed was surprised by the manner in which OSHA elected to inspect the facility on March 13,\u201d a company representative told Grist in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ethylene oxide is a powerful fumigant, but it poses significant health risks and is linked to lung and breast cancers as well as diseases of the nervous system. Once medical devices are treated with ethylene oxide, the chemical continues to evaporate off the surface of the product as it moves through the supply chain. While the devices are trucked to warehouses, stored, and then shipped to hospitals, the products continue to quietly off-gas ethylene oxide, putting workers who come into contact with it at risk. <\/p>\n\n\n