00:00This doesn't have to be as complicated as people make it out to be.
00:03Either the product is safe to breathe and live in, or it's not.
00:06Companies like Sterigenics are using ethylene oxide to sterilize medical equipment.
00:12Activists like Janet Rao have been fighting for more transparency
00:15on how much toxic cancer-causing gas is being emitted by sterilization plants across the U.S.
00:21In August 2016, the EPA revised its risk assessment of ethylene oxide.
00:27From likely to cause cancer to definitely causes cancer.
00:30The gas is used to sterilize medical devices,
00:33which is crucial to keeping surgical procedures safe for patients.
00:37The report concluded that the gas was 30 to 60 times more likely than previously understood
00:44to cause certain cancers,
00:45and that confidence in classifying ethylene oxide as carcinogenic was high.
00:50We started advocating for our community,
00:53making sure that the people within our community had facts.
00:56At the moment, there's no replacement for ethylene oxide,
00:59but there is equipment you can install at factories to capture most of the gas
01:03before it escapes into the surrounding area.
01:06Through those efforts, we were able to see the EPA create new rules that were effective as of 2024.
01:14By then, President Joe Biden's EPA finalized rules requiring plants to cut ethylene oxide emissions
01:20by 90 percent, the continuous monitoring of the gas,
01:23and to make that information available to the public.
01:26Stereogenics has paid out millions in lawsuits,
01:29but it has denied any wrongdoing related to the settlement of those claims.
01:33But in March, the Trump EPA offered industrial facilities a two-year exemption
01:39from having to comply with Biden-error toxic air regulations.
01:43The work that we've done so far has really been completely overturned by the Trump administration.
01:48From copper smelters to rubber processors and dozens of medical sterilization plants,
01:53up to 500 industrial facilities are eligible for such exemptions,
01:57according to the Environmental Defense Fund.
01:59Trump's EPA also proposed rolling back the 2024 ethylene oxide regulations altogether.
02:05EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin says the new rule will protect people's health
02:09while maintaining a stable domestic medical supply chain.
02:13Stereogenics, which is owned by Soterra Health Company,
02:16called EPA's efforts to revise the rule an important step.
02:20The company says that Stereogenics has and will continue to invest in state-of-the-art enhancements.
02:27To the government, having a safe supply chain for medical devices is a matter of national security.
02:32But for many who live near these facilities,
02:34the proposed rollback continue to threaten emissions cutbacks
02:38and the transparency they had counted on to protect their families.
02:41It once again puts profitability of a company over the health of the people.
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