ATLANTA, Ga. – On Monday, October 28, 2019, Superior Court Judge Eugene Benton ordered that medical sterilization plants in Covington and Madison would be temporarily closed pending various provisions.
Earlier this year it was reported that cancer clusters in Smyrna and Covington could be linked to cancer clusters.
AJC reported on October 11, 2019 that when Colorado environmental regulators received a federal report warning of cancer risks in Colorado communities in August 2018, they alerted the public and media, vowing to “find out what residents were breathing.”
When that information became public, Colorado started air testing for ethylene oxide, the carcinogenic compound used by Sterigenics, a medical sterilization company that the EPA identified as the “culprit of the possible health threat.”
Within a month, officials convinced the company to impose new pollution controls and accomplished a drastic reduction in the airborne gas.
When the same scare happened this year in Georgia in Covington and Smyrna, it appeared that regulators weren’t reacting fast enough. The EPA made a decision not to alert the public, but the information was leaked by online health care publications and a public panic broke out.
AJC reported that once the risk became public, Georgia reversed course and committed to air testing around the plants with Gov. Kemp quickly securing pledges of enhanced pollution controls at both of the ethylene oxide emitters in metro Atlanta — Sterigenics near Smyrna in Cobb County and Becton Dickinson (BD) in Covington.
Yesterday, Newton County Superior Court, Judge Eugene Benton signed a Consent Order between Plaintiff Richard Dunn, Director of Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division (EPD), and Defendant Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD). Among several provisions, the Order temporarily closes BD’s Covington facility for air testing, imposes fugitive emissions caps, requires mandatory reports, and imposes deadlines for installation of enhanced pollution controls at BD’s medical sterilization facilities in Covington and Madison.
“As Governor, I have pledged to Georgia families to always put them first and ensure their safety. This agreement allows for cleaner operations and improved, long-term accountability at BD’s medical sterilization facilities in Covington and Madison,” said Governor Brian P. Kemp. “I applaud Attorney General Chris Carr and his team for working with us to secure this win for Newton County and the surrounding communities.”
On October 21, 2019, EPD Director Rick Dunn filed a Verified Complaint and Motion for Temporary Restraining Order in Newton County Superior Court, seeking preliminary and injunctive relief against BD’s medical sterilization facility in Covington, Georgia.
Town hall meetings were held in Marietta and Covington in August, where regulators presented new modeling that showed risks from ethylene oxide, or EtO, were less acute, confined to the immediate vicinity of the plants and not in surrounding neighborhoods. They also announced that both plants would invest millions to upgrade their emissions controls.
