Editorial: The EPA failed residents of Kingsbury, New York
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has told residents of the town of Kingsbury, Washington County, that it’s shoring up oversight after an elevated risk of cancer was found for those working and living near a local industrial plant. The facility, Sterigenics, uses the chemical ethylene oxide to sterilize medical devices.
Sterigenics’ parent company notes that it meets or exceeds all regulatory standards. But as the EPA has learned more about the risks of ethylene oxide — linked to blood and breast cancers — it is taking a closer look at how these facilities operate.
To residents of Cohoes, this may all sound familiar.
That’s where, a few years back, the aggregate plant Norlite was fueling its incinerators with firefighting foam containing toxic PFAS chemicals without testing whether it was safe to do so — and leaving the EPA and the state Department of Environmental Conservation playing catch-up. (New York has since banned PFAS incineration.)
At the time, Norlite noted that the foam compounds were not considered hazardous waste or pollutants under federal regulations, and they were under no obligation to disclose their incineration to the city. PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are associated with illnesses such as thyroid disorders and cancer. Amid continuing concerns over dust contamination from Norlite, residents are being relocated from one nearby public housing complex.
The common thread here: The community has a right to know what’s happening inside the industrial plant next door, and regulators need to do a much better job of protecting them.”
Read more from the Times-Union editorial board here: https://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/editorial-failure-protect-17805399.php