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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued new rules Tuesday to protect more than 200 manufacturing facilities that emit airborne toxins such as ethylene oxide, chloroprene, benzene, vinyl chloride, 1,3 butadiene and ethylene dichloride.
according to EPA studiesAbout 104,000 Americans live within 6 miles of factories that produce certain synthetic organic chemicals or use them to make polymers and resins. The risk of developing cancer is more than 1 in 10,000 – a level the agency considers unacceptably high.
Other EPA studies show that people living near industrial chemical manufacturers are disproportionately poor and more likely to be black or brown than the general population.
The new law would reduce the amount of hazardous pollutants these factories are allowed to emit by about 6,200 pounds and greatly reduce cancer risks from hazardous airborne pollutants.
“This legislation alone will reduce the risk of cancer for people living in these communities by 96%,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a news briefing.
In a hard-fought victory for environmentalists, the rule requires aerial surveillance around the property, or fence. That way, companies know when hazardous air pollutants are leaking from their facilities, and can detect and fix the leaks if they exceed levels deemed unsafe.
“It's about a child getting leukemia or a mother getting breast cancer. It's about neurological impairment, respiratory disease, heart failure and stroke. In fact, for many, it's a question of life and death,” said Patrice Sims, vice president of healthy communities at Earthjustice.
This is only the second time the EPA has required companies to monitor the air for chemicals in their fence lines. The first such example was That was in 2015, when the EPA required gasoline refiners to regulate cancer-causing gasoline. The results are posted on a public dashboard On the EPA website. The agency said this new round of air control data is intended to make the results available to the public.
The agency has extended the deadline for companies to begin conducting this hedge control. The proposed legislation would have required companies to start monitoring hedges a year after the new law takes effect. Now companies will have two years to comply. Chemical companies have complained that they need more time to start monitoring. Laboratories still need to develop ways to test these chemicals.
The exception would be for companies that make neoprene, a manufacturing process that releases cancer-causing chloroprene. Those utilities must comply within 90 days.
This part of the rule covers what used to be called “Cancer Alley” in Louisiana around the Denka Performance Elastomer plant. In the year In 2016, the EPA found St. John's parish had the highest cancer risk in the country – about 15 times higher Above acceptable limits – primarily due to factory emissions.
The EPA says Reagan's new rule will cut emissions of ethylene oxide and chloroprene by more than 80 percent.
The new law is coming for chemical manufacturers After a few weeks The EPA has finalized tough new rules for facilities that use ethylene oxide gas to sterilize medical equipment, spices and other items.
According to the agency, there are ways to control other sources of exposure to ethylene oxide, such as the release of gas into the atmosphere from sterilized products in storage warehouses.
The agency also stated that it is conducting research to better understand and measure ethylene oxide.