FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 13, 2026
CONTACT:
Aaron Bharucha, Public Relations Associate
(509) 429-1699 and epn-press@environmentalprotectionnetwork.org
Trump EPA Slashing Limits on Ethylene Oxide, Chemical Known to Cause Cancer
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Environmental Protection Network (EPN) released the following statement after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed weakening of the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for ethylene oxide (EtO) commercial sterilization facilities. Ethylene oxide is used to sterilize medical equipment, among other uses, but it is also a dangerous chemical and poses serious cancer risks to the communities living nearby. Nearly 90 facilities across the country are covered by this rule, and many operate in residential neighborhoods and near schools in unassuming buildings — creating localized exposures residents may not even realize are happening.
“Rolling back protections against ethylene oxide pollution is a slap in the face to the communities living near these facilities, where emissions are already posing unacceptable cancer risks,” said former EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe. “These safeguards were based on EPA’s own scientific assessment of the dangers of this chemical, and families have spent years pushing for stronger protections, not weaker ones. By focusing only on industry’s compliance costs while ignoring the health costs of increased exposure, this proposal hides the real impact on the people breathing this pollution every day.”
The health protections being weakened were based on EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessment of ethylene oxide, a comprehensive review of the best available science on the chemical’s cancer risks. A recent review by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that an alternative risk assessment promoted by Texas regulators lacked a scientifically sound basis, effectively reaffirming EPA’s IRIS assessment as the most reliable foundation for evaluating the health risks of ethylene oxide exposure.
Today’s announcement is yet another move by the current leadership at EPA to roll back protections against toxic chemicals – and the state-of-the-art science supporting those protections – putting Americans at greater risk of toxic exposure while giving polluting industries more leeway to release toxics into our air, water and land. Health experts and environmental scientists have been sounding the alarm about the startling scale of federal actions that are increasing these risks. Rollbacks like this are exactly why EPN launched its Safer, Not Sicker campaign—to connect the dots between toxic pollution, its health impacts, and the policy decisions that determine how much of that pollution reaches our communities.
EPN will submit formal comments on EPA’s proposed changes during the comment period.
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ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NETWORK
The Environmental Protection Network is a nonpartisan organization comprising more than 750 former EPA scientists, toxicologists, chemists, biologists, engineers, and policy analysts — many of whom spent decades as career experts inside the agency. They assessed cancer and developmental risks, studied links between pollution and fertility and chronic disease, investigated contaminated communities, and brought enforcement actions to hold corporate polluters accountable. EPN was founded in 2017 to serve as an independent voice promoting science-based policies that protect Americans’ health.