The mayor of Covington, Ga. has asked Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) to temporarily shut down a plant there following a weeklong leak of the gas it uses to sterilize medical devices.
A letter from Mayor Ronnie Johnston says that independent air quality tests performed for the city from Sept. 17 to Sept. 24 revealed “particularly high levels of ethylene oxide in the neighborhoods adjacent to your facility.” Those levels coincided with a valve leak that occurred between Sept. 15 and Sept. 23. BD alerted the city and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division to the leak after it was discovered and corrected on Sept. 23.
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