This story is co-reported by Brenda Goodman of WebMD and Andy Miller of Georgia Health News.
July 23, 2019 – Residents and their elected officials in metropolitan Atlanta are concerned after learning that a potentially cancer-causing gas is floating within the air near their homes, schools and workplaces.
On Friday, WebMD and Georgia Health News revealed that the EPA identified three census tracts in Georgia as areas of increased cancer risk as a result of a toxic gas called ethylene oxide. All of those census tracts are within the Atlanta metropolitan area: Two are within the Smyrna area west of town and one is in Covington, east of Atlanta.
In Smyrna, the plant that releases ethylene oxide known as Sterigenics. In Covington, the plant is often called BD, formerly Bard. Nationally, 109 census tracts are at higher risk for cancer, primarily as a result of exposure to ethylene oxide, a chemical used to sterilize medical equipment and make other products akin to antifreeze.
Citizens and officials expressed their concerns and questions on various social media platforms, with lots of their comments revolving across the incontrovertible fact that the EPA rarely made its findings about cancer risks public.
The local governments of Smyrna and Covington posted statements on their web sites to reassure residents that, while they were also learning in regards to the problem for the primary time, they were already beginning to work on it.
“I am incredibly shocked, scared and angry to learn about this plant,” said one woman who posted on Stop Sterigenics' public Facebook page. Stop Sterigenics is a bunch of residents from Willowbrook, Illinois, where one other Sterigenics site is positioned. They formed the group last August after learning about ethylene oxide pollution and the increased cancer risk in their very own community.
Stop Sterigenics posted a brand new welcome message on Monday for Atlanta-area members who just joined.
“So many questions,” said a person who posted on the Facebook page for the Citizens of Newtonthe local newspaper in Covington, which broke the story as a media partner of Georgia Health News. “So the EPA creates a list of 109 census tracts where airborne toxins have increased cancer risk (useful!), but then…does nothing with it?” Not useful!” he wrote. “What else don't we all know?”
In the Smyrna area, citizens were preparing a public meeting for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Atlanta Freethought Society on North Church Lane.
Tony Adams, a Smyrna-area resident who is helping organize the meeting, called the community response on the neighborhood's online group Nextdoor “overwhelming.”
“We wish to understand how much of a human carcinogen is emitted, whether it is emitted? And what are the long-term effects?” Adams said.
“We wish to be there and know what happens next. We have to be organized,” he said.
Karen Hays, director of the Air Protection Division of the Georgia Environmental Protection Agency (EPD), responded to the article in the Marietta Daily Newspaperwhich published the story as a media partner of Georgia Health News.
“I believe the story was meant to alarm people and never show the larger picture,” she said.
In Covington, city council members discussed the revelations about ethylene oxide pollution in a regular meeting on Monday evening.
Council member Anthony Henderson disagreed with the EPD's position. “I just think that unfortunately the EPD feels that the numbers don't really impact people or really try to grasp people's perspective,” he said. “One life is just too many or an excessive amount of to sacrifice in a situation like this. Myself, the City Council and town will do every thing we are able to to see that the situation is resolved,” he said, according to the Citizens of Newton.
Georgia State Senator Jen Jordan, a Democratic representative of Smyrna County, said she spoke with Sterigenics President Philip MacNabb on Tuesday. He said the company will submit an application to the EPD within two weeks to install new pollution control technology at its Cobb County plant. The EPD must approve the application.
Georgia Democratic Rep. Erick Allen, who represents Smyrna's 40th District, wrote on Facebook that he hopes Sterigenics will work to make its operations safer without waiting for the company to be sued, as was the case in Illinois.
“We deserve higher, and I’ll demand higher,” he wrote. “I even have been in contact with other local, state, and federal elected officials and their offices, and we’re committed to seeing this through to resolution. Please proceed to post, email, and call as we work through this together as a community.”
The City of Smyrna posted a brief statement on its website Monday to inform residents that while the Sterigenics facility is outside of its official jurisdiction, “we are actually informed and join a bigger group of local and state voices addressing these alarming news and circumstances.”
The city of Covington also issued a brief statement.
“Know that the protection of our residents is our highest priority. We have spoken briefly with our state representatives, EPA and BD officials and are awaiting further details from them. As more information becomes available, the City will take the mandatory actions to guard our residents.”