Invisible Threat, Inequitable Impact
Tennessee has two commercial sterilizers, Sterilization Services of Tennessee 在孟菲斯和 DeRoyal行业/Royal Sterilization 在新塔兹韦尔. 近141,000 Tennesseans (roughly 2 percent of the state population) live within five miles of them (US Census Bureau 2020). Both sterilize medical equipment. The EPA has identified both as contributing to elevated cancer risks (see Sterilization Services of Tennessee 和 DeRoyal行业), with maximum excess cancer risk levels of 2,000 additional cases per 1 million people for Sterilization Services 和 3,000 cases per 1 million people for DeRoyal (EPA 2022m; EPA 2022n). In 2021, the facilities reported 1,490 和 1,650 pounds of EtO releases 和 transfers, respectively.
The Sterilization Services facility, 位于南孟菲斯, is within five miles of more than 130,000 people 和 approximately 180 schools 和 childcare centers. This is a predominantly Black community, where the proportion of people of color 和 people with low income within five miles of the facility are 87 percent 和 57 percent, respectively—both 20 percent greater than the county average. The estimated air toxics cancer risk in the census tract with the Sterilization Services facility is 200 additional cases per 1 million people; EtO emissions contribute to nearly 82 percent of the overall cancer risk in this tract (AirToxScreen 2022). The EPA found this facility to be in noncompliance with the Clean Air Act in one of the last 12 quarters, 和 it has been subject to two formal enforcement actions in the last five years, 支付近10美元,罚款5000美元. Organizers from Memphis Community Against Pollution have been pushing federal 和 local officials to hold the facility accountable 和 protect public health (MCAP, n.d.).