Los Angeles is known worldwide for its cultural influence and oceanfront lifestyle, but in the industrial neighborhoods of LA, from Boyle Heights to Maywood and Huntington Park, residents and workers face a more dangerous reality than smog or traffic emissions. Located just a short distance from downtown, the Sterigenics facility in Vernon releases ethylene oxide (EtO), a sterilizing gas widely used in the medical industry, which poses a serious threat to public health.
This invisible and odorless chemical, classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a known human carcinogen, is drifting towards neighboring communities in Vernon and beyond. It is a public health emergency unfolding in full view, yet federal authorities have taken little action to contain the danger.
Despite extensive scientific data, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has not updated critical worker safety standards for EtO since 1984. Without modern protection and enforcement, thousands of residents and employees are exposed daily, including those raising children and running businesses near the Vernon sterilization plant.
A necessary chemical, and a severe lack of oversight
Ethylene oxide plays a vital role in modern healthcare. Roughly half of all medical devices in the United States are sterilized using EtO because many sensitive instruments cannot be sanitized with heat or steam. The chemical is indispensable for hospitals and clinics. Yet, the same chemical that prevents infection in a surgical room can quietly endanger workers who are around it or handle it.
The EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have linked prolonged exposure to heightened risks of breast cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. Short-term exposure to higher concentrations may cause respiratory tract irritation, dizziness, and neurological symptoms.
Los Angeles already struggles with pollution and environmental inequality, making these findings even more alarming. In 2022, the South Coast AQMD issued multiple violation notices to the Vernon Sterigenics facility for failing to maintain proper emission controls. However, the agency doesn’t have the authority to enforce worker safety. That responsibility lies with OSHA, and by stalling to revisit its outdated rules, the agency has allowed cumulative damage to unfold for years.
This pattern is not isolated to California. In Willowbrook, Illinois, and Laredo, Texas, projections showed elevated cancer risks above federal safety limits. According to an exposure map, in 2018, the Midwest Sterilization Corporation in Laredo, Texas, showed 18 times the EPA’s acceptable risk, and the Sterigenics facility in Willowbrook, Illinois, revealed cancer risks 4.8 times the EPA’s acceptable threshold. Despite these numbers, these facilities, along with many others across the country, are now technically in compliance with obsolete federal regulations.
To make matters worse, three industrial facilities in California, including the Vernon site, were granted exemptions that allowed them to bypass the Clean Air Act through a simple email request to the Executive Office. Public health is being sidelined for corporate profit and convenience.
Outdated standards
and ongoing exposure
The core issue is not a lack of knowledge but a lack of action. OSHA’s permissible exposure limit (PEL) for ethylene oxide has not been updated in decades, long before current toxicology research revealed its true risks. The EPA now acknowledges that EtO may be up to 60 times more carcinogenic than originally believed. While the agency intends to lower workplace limits to 0.1 parts per million (ppm) by 2035, OSHA still allows a prolonged exposure level of 1 ppm, a threshold ten times higher than the proposed limit.
This regulatory disconnect leaves sterilization workers and nearby communities breathing air that the government already recognizes as hazardous. It is not simply a bureaucratic failure. It represents an ethical lapse in protecting basic workplace safety and human life.
California and Los
Angeles must step forward
OSHA’s inaction may be federal, but California has the power and the moral imperative to respond. Environmental justice advocates and labor organizations must continue pressing state and local leaders to strengthen workplace protections, implement continuous air monitoring, and compel industrial facilities to adopt safer operational standards.
Sites such as the Vernon Sterigenics facility should be required to install modern ventilation and leak detection systems, provide proper protective equipment for all employees, and undergo routine medical checks to identify early signs of toxic exposure in workers. These are not complex or experimental solutions. They are widely used public health safeguards that should already be standard practice.
Los Angeles has faced environmental crises before, and history shows that when communities mobilize, change follows. Waiting for another preventable health disaster before updating protections is not an option. The technology exists, and the research is conclusive. What remains is the political resolve to hold industry accountable and prioritize the lives of workers and residents.
If Los Angeles intends to remain a national leader in environmental and labor justice, it must begin by addressing the unseen dangers in its own neighborhoods and demand that OSHA finally modernize its standards and fulfill its mission to protect American workers.
About the Author
Jordan Cade is an attorney with the Environmental Litigation Group, P.C. His work focuses on advocating for people and communities harmed by toxic chemical exposure, seeking justice and holding those responsible accountable for environmental health violations.