By Jordan Cade
Just 1.7 miles away from San Fernando, in Sylmar, St. Jude Medical CRMD, a sterilization facility, quietly emits ethylene oxide (EtO), a colorless, odorless gas that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classifies as a known human carcinogen. Nearly 343,000 people live within five miles of the facility, 90% of whom are Latino. The area is also home to 199 schools and childcare centers.
EtO exposure is a silent health crisis unfolding in plain sight, one that federal regulators have done little to stop. For many families across the San Fernando Valley, particularly in communities already burdened by industrial pollution, this represents a quiet but dangerous public health threat. However, the workers at St. Jude Medical, those exposed to EtO every day in their jobs, are facing the greatest immediate danger. They breathe in this toxic gas day in and day out, putting their health and lives at risk with each passing shift.
Despite mounting scientific evidence of EtO’s risks, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has failed to update decades-old standards meant to protect the very workers and communities most exposed. Without stronger limits and enforcement, thousands of people will continue breathing contaminated air in the very neighborhoods where they live, work, and raise their children.
The Necessary Poison and the Lack of Accountability
Ethylene oxide has become a cornerstone of modern medicine. Hospitals depend on it to sterilize half of all medical devices in the U.S. For sensitive instruments that can’t withstand steam or heat, EtO is indispensable. But the same gas that protects patients can slowly poison people who handle it. The EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have linked chronic exposure to elevated risks of breast cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. Even short-term contact with high concentrations of EtO can cause breathing problems, dizziness, and neurologic problems.
This reality is particularly concerning for the Hispanic communities in San Fernando and Sylmar, where a great portion of the population is Latino, many of whom are low-income and face challenges due to limited English proficiency. These communities already encounter obstacles to health care, environmental protections, and political representation. The risk also affects hundreds of schools and childcare centers in the same exposure zones, putting children at ongoing risk from these emissions. This issue extends beyond the Valley. In Los Angeles, the South Coast Air Quality Management District investigated a Sterigenics sterilization facility in Vernon and issued multiple violation notices after ethylene oxide releases were linked to pollution control failures. This pattern is familiar: communities are exposed, regulatory action is delayed, and effective protections are implemented only after prolonged risk.
Outdated Standards, Ongoing Exposure
The heart of the problem doesn’t lie in mystery, but in neglect. OSHA’s permissible exposure limits (PELs) for ethylene oxide haven’t changed since 1984. That was before modern toxicology revealed just how potent this chemical really is.
Today, the EPA acknowledges that EtO is up to 60 times more carcinogenic than previously thought. While the agency has proposed lowering workplace limits of 0.1 parts per million (ppm) by 2035, OSHA’s outdated standards still allow exposure at 1 ppm, ten times higher. That regulatory gap has left sterilization workers breathing air that the government already knows is dangerous. This is not a mere technical or bureaucratic error – it’s a moral failure to ensure fundamental worker rights.
California has long served as a symbol of reinvention, a place where industries evolve, and progress is the standard. Yet in several regions, outdated federal rules and administrative discretion have left workers and families exposed to cancer-causing air.
California Must Lead in Public Advocacy
While OSHA’s inaction is national, California doesn’t have to wait. The state has the power and the precedent to lead. Environmental justice organizations and labor unions must unite and pressure lawmakers to enact stronger workplace safety regulations, implement continuous real-time air monitoring, and upgrade facility standards to drastically reduce the risk of EtO exposure in the state.
Facilities should be required to install advanced ventilation and leak-detection systems, conduct regular public reporting, and provide protective gear for all employees. Routine medical screenings should also become mandatory to help identify early signs of exposure-related illnesses. These seem like radical proposals, but they are just basic public health measures.
California has faced crises like this before, but reason and consciousness have finally prevailed, overcoming corporate greed and federal inaction. We can all agree that waiting for another environmental disaster before tightening rules is not an option. The tools to fix this problem already exist, but we also need the political will to confront an industry that prioritizes profit over people.
If California is to continue leading the way on environmental and labor justice, it must begin by confronting the quiet dangers in its own backyard and demanding that federal agencies, such as OSHA, finally fulfill their responsibilities.
Jordan Cade is an attorney with the Environmental Litigation Group, P.C., based in Birmingham, Alabama. He represents individuals and communities impacted by toxic chemical exposure, working to ensure accountability and justice for environmental health violations.