This article has been updated with a comment from Sterigenics and a correction on the location of the Georgia plant.
The FDA warned last week about the potential for more medical device shortages, this time due to the temporary shutdown of a Sterigenics ethylene oxide (EO) plant in Atlanta, Ga.
The Atlanta plant uses ethylene oxide (EO) to sterilize medical devices. The federal Environmental Protection Agency recognizes EO as a carcinogen and lowered its limits on emissions of the sterilant gas in 2016. Sterigenics closed the plant on August 26, 2019, so it could upgrade systems to reduce EO emissions. Sterigenics said in July that it had voluntarily reduced EO emissions at its Atlanta plant by 90% over the past five years.
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