EPA limits toxic air pollution from chemical plants

Introduction

Five months after moving into her home in Texas City, Tex., encircled by industrial facilities, Nina Patton was diagnosed with breast cancer. She wondered if the pollution billowing from these plants was to blame.

EPA Finalizes Rule to Reduce Cancer-causing Gases

Cancer-causing gases and other toxic air pollution from chemical operations in Patton’s community — and others like it nationwide — will be cut under a rule the Environmental Protection Agency finalized Tuesday. The rule, the first update to national standards in nearly two decades, aims to prevent cancer in low-income and minority neighborhoods that are disproportionately located near such plants.

Targeting Ethylene Oxide and Chloroprene

The regulation specifically targets ethylene oxide, which is used to sterilize medical devices, and chloroprene, which is used to make rubber. Long-term exposure to these two chemicals can increase the risk of certain types of cancer, including lymphoma, leukemia, breast cancer, and liver cancer. The agency last month finalized a separate rule that will limit ethylene oxide from facilities that sterilize medical equipment, rather than chemical plants.

Impact on Local Communities

Patton, 68, said she hopes the rule will improve air quality and eliminate the harsh odors that linger outside her home, which is less than a mile from major refineries and less than two miles from major chemical plants. Above all, she hopes it will reduce cancer cases in the area.

A few years after moving in, Patton’s husband, Phil, was diagnosed with colon cancer, though he had no family history of it. Last week, one of their neighbors died of pancreatic and liver cancer. Though it is nearly impossible to prove the cause of these cases, a robust body of scientific evidence has linked industrial air pollution with several kinds of cancer.

When it comes to local plant owners’ control of the chemicals their operations release, Patton said that “it would be different if they couldn’t control it, but they can. So they should be taking responsibility.”

Impact on “Cancer Alley” in Louisiana

Beyond Texas, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said, the rule will especially benefit communities in Louisiana, where an 85-mile-long area between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is known as “Cancer Alley” because of numerous polluting facilities. He visited the region in 2021 as part of a “Journey to Justice” tour.

“When I visited St. John’s Parish in Cancer Alley during the first leg of my Journey to Justice tour in 2021, I saw firsthand how the multigenerational and widespread effects of pollution are affecting the health of the local community,” Regan told reporters on a call Monday previewing the announcement. “Nearly every person I spoke to knew someone who suffered from an illness connected to pollution from the air they breathed.”

Reduction of Toxic Air Pollution

The rule will apply to roughly 200 chemical plants that make synthetic organic chemicals, polymers, and resins. Once implemented, it will reduce more than 6,200 tons of toxic air pollution each year, and it will curb both ethylene oxide and chloroprene emissions from covered facilities by nearly 80 percent, according to the EPA.

To comply, chemical manufacturers will need to monitor ethylene oxide and chloroprene emissions near the fence lines of their operations. They will need to plug any leaks of the chemicals from vents and storage tanks.

Industry Concerns

The American Chemistry Council, the industry’s primary trade group, said Tuesday it was still reviewing the rule. But the group suggested that the requirements could make it harder to manufacture essential products.

“Some of the new restrictions threaten to affect the production of chemistries that are needed for countless everyday products and are used in key industries, including agriculture, healthcare, semiconductors, and electric vehicle batteries,” Tom Flanagin, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, said in an emailed statement.

Targeting Denka Performance Elastomer Facility

The new limits will target a facility owned by Denka Performance Elastomer, a synthetics maker in LaPlace, La. Air monitors near the facility have shown chloroprene concentrations reaching up to 15 times the level that EPA considers safe for a lifetime of exposure, according to the agency.

The Justice Department last year sued Denka in an effort to force the company to curb these emissions. The company said at the time that concentrations of the chemical did not pose a public health emergency and that they had declined significantly since 2015.

Denka did not immediately respond to a request for comment.