Three industrial facilities in California have received exemptions from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to emit a carcinogenic chemical after the Trump administration invited large emitters to bypass key provisions of the Clean Air Act by simply sending an email.
The EPA in March announced that it would allow large stationary sources of air pollution — that is, sources that aren’t vehicles — to apply for an exemption that would enable them to avoid regulations that limit hazardous emissions. The provision in question applies to the regulation of nearly 200 pollutants, including mercury, arsenic, benzene and formaldehyde.
The nation’s top environmental agency said the exemptions could be granted under the president’s authority “if the technology to implement the standard is not available and it is in the national security interests of the United States to do so.” Environmental groups were outraged by the announcement — dubbing the email offer as an “inbox from hell.”
As of publication, at least 340 facilities nationwide have received or applied for exemptions from the EPA, including 87 in Texas, 51 in Louisiana and 18 in Pennsylvania, according to a tracker created by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund.
So far, three facilities in California have applied for and received approval. All three belong to Sterigenics, a company that provides industrial sterilization technology for medical devices and other commercial products at two locations in Los Angeles and one in San Bernardino County.
The rule from which they are seeking relief applies to a chemical known as ethylene oxide, or EtO, which is commonly used to sterilize medical devices that can’t be cleaned using steam or radiation. An estimated 50% of sterile medical devices in the U.S. are treated with EtO. The colorless gas is also used to make chemicals found in products such as antifreeze, detergents, plastics and adhesives.
Yet the EPA’s own website notes that short-term exposure to EtO by inhalation can cause adverse health effects including headaches, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, respiratory irritation, gastrointestinal distress and vomiting.
Long-term exposure is even worse, with the EPA website noting that “EtO is a human carcinogen. It causes cancer in humans.”
Specifically, chronic exposure to ethylene oxide over many years increases the risk of cancers of the white blood cells, such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma, as well as breast cancer, according to the EPA. Children are particularly susceptible to its health risks.
Granting exemptions for such emissions is “something we should all be concerned about,” said Will Barrett, assistant vice president for nationwide clean air policy at the American Lung Assn.
“The public counts on these types of protections to ensure that their families are limiting their exposures to cancer-causing and other health risk-inducing pollutants,” Barrett said. “And to the extent that these exemption requests are allowed to undermine that, or to delay and continue the pollution that people are being exposed to — that can have deadly consequences.”
The Biden administration took steps to strengthen regulations for ethylene oxide under its amended air toxics standards in 2024, designed to reduce the amount of EtO released from commercial sterilizers by 90% and lessen the hazards for nearby communities.
The Trump administration instead argued those regulations place “severe burdens on commercial sterilization facilities,” and risk making sterile medical devices unavailable to patients who need them.
“The continued utilization of ethylene oxide by commercial sterilization facilities is essential to ensuring that our Nation provides its sick and injured with the best outcomes possible — an objective that is at the forefront of the Federal Government’s responsibility to the American people,” Trump wrote in a July executive order.
Trump in that same order listed nearly 40 facilities receiving exemptions from EtO compliance deadlines for two years, including the Southern California plants belonging to Sterigenics, one in Ontario, and two across the street from each other in Vernon.
In a statement, a Sterigenics spokesperson said the company “remains committed to operating safe facilities that protect patients, employees and communities.”
“The company has proactively implemented additional enhancements to further reduce already negligible levels of EtO emissions,” the statement said. “This extension to the timeline will allow Sterigenics to continue to make thoughtful, proactive investments and focus resources on ensuring stable, reliable compliance.”
According to public data, the two Sterigenics plants in Vernon released a combined 78 lbs of ethylene oxide emissions in 2024, while the one in Ontario released 612 lbs. By comparison, one of the largest ethylene oxide emitters in the country, the Union Carbide plant in Louisiana, emitted 6,894 lbs. in 2024. The federal government also granted that facility an exemption.
This is not the first time Sterigenics has faced scrutiny. In 2022, the South Coast Air Quality Management District issued violation notices for improperly handling ethylene oxide to Sterigenics and another company called Parter Medical Products in Carson for improper handling of ethylene oxide.
Biden’s standards are set to go into effect in mid-2026. The Trump administration has said one reason it is issuing these exemptions is that the technology to implement these stricter standards “does not exist.”
But the Biden administration would not have finalized the rules if such technology were not available, according to Ellen Robo, senior manager of clean air policy and analytics at the Environmental Defense Fund, who helped create the tracker.
“The standards that are now being ignored by these exemptions were carefully considered,” Robo said. “And with this arbitrary designation, they are being allowed to pollute in these communities with very little notice.”
Robo said at least 10 more sterilization plants in California are governed by the ethylene oxide standards, and it’s likely that they have also applied for an exemption. They are located in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, Sacramento and Marin counties.
Thinking nationally, this is just one of eight rules for which the EPA has recently offered exemptions via email. The others include rules governing mercury and air toxics; polymers and resins; rubber tires; copper smelting; and coal power, among others.
“These are things that cause cancer, cause developmental delays in children and babies,” Robo said. “These are many of the most toxic pollutants.”
The EPA’s exemption template asked applicants to explain why they can’t currently meet the emissions reduction goals and why an extension is in the national security interests of the country. The EPA said an email alone doesn’t guarantee an exemption but that the president “will make a decision on the merits.” The two-year exemptions can potentially be renewed, the agency said.
While California so far has been granted fewer exemptions than some other states, it also has consistently ranked as one of the worst states for air quality in the nation, said Barrett of the American Lung Assn.
The group’s most recent annual “State of the Air” report ranked San Bernardino as the nation’s most polluted county for ozone and particle pollution, while Los Angeles has been ranked the nation’s smoggiest city 25 of the last 26 years.
“For the millions and millions of people — and hundreds of thousands of children — living with asthma and other respiratory illnesses that people are dealing with on a daily basis, any erosion of the clean air protections under the Clean Air Act is a real step backward and a rejection of decades of peer-reviewed scientific literature about the harms of air pollution,” Barrett said.
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