Hundreds Gather For Public Forum In Smyrna About Toxic Chemical

State and local officials organized the public forum after news broke earlier this month that areas in Smyrna and Covington have an increased risk of cancer because of ethylene oxide.

Emma Peaslee / WABE

More than 500 people turned out to Campbell Middle School Tuesday night. Smyrna residents wanted answers from the president of a Sterigenics, a company that owns a plant in the city that emits a hazardous chemical in their neighborhood.

Andrew Kurt, one of at least a dozen people who questioned the company’s president, Phil MacNabb, knew the stakes could not be higher for him and the others packed into the middle school auditorium.

“But seriously, this is our lives here,” he said.