Sterigenics CEO to brief Cobb commissioners after town hall

Bob Ott, Sterigenics
Cobb commissioner Bob Ott

After a heated town hall meeting last week at the Cobb Civic Center over toxic emissions coming from a Smyrna medical sterilization plant, the CEO of that company will address Cobb commissioners at a work session Monday.

It’s the first item on the work session agenda, which includes a presentation of the 2018 Cobb government pension report, an update on the Cobb 2050 Comprehensive Transportation Plan and updates of the 2005, 2011 and 2016 SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) programs from PARKS, Transportation, Facilities, Public Safety, Public Services and Information Technology.

(You can read through the agenda items here.)

The work session begins at 1:30 p.m. Monday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.

According to the agenda summary, the commissioners “will receive presentations from Mr. Philip McNabb, CEO Sterigenics, Lauren Curry, [Georgia] EPD Deputy Director and Karen Hays, Chief, Air Protection Branch regarding the Smyrna Sterigenic Plant, their operational processes and their plan moving forward.”

More than 1,000 people turned out for the town hall in the wake of a report by Georgia Health News and WebMD that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency didn’t notify the state of three ethylene oxide hotspots it detected with higher cancer risks in Georgia for more than a year.

One of those hotspots is the Smyrna plant off Atlanta Road. Ethylene oxide is an invisible, odorless toxin that’s used to sterilize around half of all medical products that require it. It’s also been linked to higher cancer rates in areas near facilities that emanate the gas.

In 2016 the EPA upgraded the designation of ethylene oxide to a carcinogen.

In his weekly newsletter released Friday, District 2 Cobb commissioner Bob Ott wrote the following:

I want to emphasize here that there is much that we all now know, but there is also much that we don’t know yet. For example, until the air quality testing being done by Cobb, Smyrna and the City of Atlanta is complete, we do not know what levels of ethylene oxide from the plant are in our air. The testing is also going to give us the ambient amount of ethylene oxide in our air. Studies have shown that in most areas of the country there is some amount of ethylene oxide in the air. The testing sanctioned by the county and the cities will give us that information. The results should be known in about a month.
    
In talking with many of you I know that you are concerned about the health and safety of you and your families. I share your concerns and want you to know that the county is doing all it can to get factual data to determine the path forward.

Until we gather more information, I ask you to not make any rash decisions about moving or closing your business. The commissioners will have in short order factual data about the amount of ethylene oxide in our air and the health ramifications.

Ott mentioned the Monday work session, and included the following links for more information:

 

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