This story is jointly reported by Brenda Goodman of WebMD and Andy Miller of Georgia Health News One of Alexandria Pittman’s jobs at ConMed in Lithia Springs had her working near a dock where trucks would unload boxes of freshly sterilized medical supplies. Those supplies had been sterilized with a toxic gas called ethylene oxide […]
Search results
Posted inYour Family
Expert says air testing results from area affected by Sterigenics lab are ‘pretty damning’
Brenda Goodman is a senior news writer for WebMD. Andy Miller is editor and CEO of Georgia Health News. Initial testing of the air near a medical supply sterilizing facility in Smyrna found little to no ethylene oxide in the large majority of samples taken earlier this month. The September tests occurred days after Sterigenics shut down […]
Posted inYour Family
Sterigenics plant shuts down until October as air testing begins
A medical sterilization facility in metro Atlanta is shutting down operations until October as it undergoes construction to reduce emissions of a toxic gas. Sterigenics said Friday that a September shutdown will expedite the improvements that the company has promised state officials that it will make to reduce ethylene oxide pollution. The move comes as […]
Posted inYour Family
Documents show Trump administration thwarted action on cancer-causing gas
On August 22, 2018, the citizens of Willowbrook, Ill., had just one hour to learn that local EPA officials were investigating high levels of a toxic gas in the neighborhoods near their homes. Then those officials, who were staffers in the EPA’s Region 5 office, got a call from their bosses in D.C. with an […]
Posted inIn The News
Is your home slowly poisoning you?
As it is every year, January is National Radon Action month. However, this year feels different, as many people are spending more time at home to keep each other safe and healthy. This makes it even more important that we test our homes for radon, a colorless, odorless gas that is the second-leading cause of […]
Posted inYour Family
Kemp signs bill to regulate ethylene oxide
Manufacturers that use the cancer-causing chemical ethylene oxide face new restrictions in Georgia under legislation Gov. Brian Kemp has signed into law. Senate Bill 426 was among a flurry of 40 bills Kemp signed on Wednesday, the legal deadline for the governor to sign or veto measures the General Assembly passed during this year’s session. […]
Posted inYour Family
A South Fulton neighborhood has high levels of cancer-causing toxin ethylene oxide
A neighborhood west of Atlanta faces cancer risks that exceed what the government considers acceptable for airborne toxins, a study by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) shows. The neighborhood, Westchase at Sandtown, in southern Fulton County, sits about a half-mile southeast of Sterilization Services of Georgia, which uses ethylene oxide gas to sterilize medical products. […]
Posted inIn The News
2019 In Georgia: The heartbeat bill and the new governor were at the top of the news
In 2019, Georgia swore in a new governor, said goodbye to a senator who was known for his bipartisanship, welcomed the Super Bowl to Atlanta, and grappled with a controversial new law. Here is a look back at the year we had. Battle over a heartbeat Georgia’s legislative session was dominated by a controversial “heartbeat […]
Posted inYour Family
Measles and Ethylene Oxide were among the top health concerns of 2019 in Georgia
From waivers to toxic pollution to disease outbreaks, Georgia experienced an eventful year in health care. Here is our list of the Top 10 health care stories in 2019. Let us know what we got right – and what we missed! 1. Gov. Brian Kemp unveiled proposals to offer more people Medicaid coverage and improve private […]
Posted inYour Family
Covington to sterilization plant: Shut down until cancer-causing emissions stop
The city of Covington has called for a company to shut down its local medical sterilization plant until it can reduce its emissions of a cancer-causing gas. In a Wednesday news release, the city said preliminary data from air pollution testing found ethylene oxide levels that were particularly high in two neighborhoods close to the BD sterilizing […]