In Marietta, EPA To Hold Community Meeting On Ethylene Oxide
More than 500 people turned out last month to a public forum in Smyrna. State and local officials organized the meeting after news broke out that areas in Smyrna and Covington could have an increased risk of cancer because of ethylene oxide. Another meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at the Cobb County Civic Center.
Emma Peaslee / WABE
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will host a community meeting Monday night in Marietta to address recent reports of elevated levels of a cancer-causing gas in parts of Cobb and Fulton counties.
The agency says people living around the Sterigenics plant in Smyrna could have higher cancer risks because of exposure to ethylene oxide. The gas is used to sterilize medical equipment at the facility near the Fulton-Cobb border.
At the meeting, set to start at 7 p.m. at the Cobb County Civic Center, federal and state officials plan to talk about what they knew about ethylene oxide levels near the plant.
They’re also expected to talk about the impacts of exposure to the gas and what they plan to do to monitor it in the future.
Last week, Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division pledged to begin testing around the Sterigenics facility and at the BD Bard plant in Covington, where ethylene oxide is also used.
State officials say air samples will be collected every six days for several months. A commercial lab will test the samples and release results in early November.
That announcement came shortly after EPA testing at a site in south DeKalb County found elevated levels of the gas. The agency did not attribute the gas to an individual source.
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