Toxic gas in Louisiana air far exceeds safe levels, EPA estimates, US study finds

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – The toxic gas ethylene oxide (EtO) is detectable in southeast Louisiana at levels a thousand times higher than what is considered safe, according to a new study.

EtO emissions largely come from petrochemical production, and southeast Louisiana has a high density of facilities that use or manufacture petrochemicals.

“We expected to see ethylene oxide in this area,” said study leader Peter DeCarlo of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “But we didn’t expect the levels we saw, and they were certainly much, much higher” than the levels estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The EPA’s estimates were based on traditional EtO monitoring methods that involve collecting air samples and analyzing them in a laboratory, a method that is not accurate, DeCarlo said.

Because EtO concentrations change over time, the air coming out of the collection container in the laboratory is different from the air that was originally collected, he explained.

In February 2023, researchers repeatedly crisscrossed the southeast Louisiana industrial corridor with a state-of-the-art mobile air testing laboratory that could directly measure EtO levels at the site.

EtO is so toxic that dangerous levels for long-term exposure start at 11 parts per trillion, researchers noted in a report published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Levels in southeast Louisiana reached 40 parts per billion near industrial facilities, “more than a thousand times greater than the accepted risk of lifetime exposure,” DeCarlo said.

“I don’t think there is any census tract in the area that doesn’t have a higher cancer risk than we would consider acceptable,” DeCarlo said.

Long-term exposure has been linked to cancer, especially for people who live near facilities that manufacture EtO or work with it.

Concerning levels were found up to 10 kilometers downwind of the factories, according to the report.

A public school in Gonzales, Louisiana, is just 5 miles from the center of an industrial “hotspot,” researchers said.

The EPA said it would review the study. He added that he had already taken steps to reduce pollution in the part of the state nicknamed “Cancer Alley” due to its higher cancer incidence rates, including by establishing new standards for chemical manufacturing and conducting research. about EtO sources.

A spokesperson for American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, which represents the U.S. petrochemical and petroleum refining industry, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

High cancer rates in the area linked to local industrial air pollution disproportionately affect poor and black neighborhoods. DeCarlo said his team has been sharing its findings with these neighborhoods.

“We now have data that will help them convey their concerns” to public health officials, he said.

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; additional reporting by Richard Valdmanis; editing by Bill Berkrot)