EPA Dilutes Plan on Cancer-Causing Sterilizer After FDA Protest (Corrected)

First Move will not publish Jan. 20 in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. We will resume Jan. 21.

The EPA has acquiesced to FDA protests by nixing a request to learn whether companies could use lower levels of ethylene oxide to sterilize medical equipment. The FDA says the EPA has authority only over releases of the cancer-causing chemical into the air, not over how much of it is used in sterilization plants.

Cancer Connection: Limiting the type of information that the EPA can gather might hamper its ability to strengthen emission standards for commercial sterilizers. The ...