5 things to know about a Mississauga factory using a carcinogenic gas

In late 2021, federal government researchers found “detectable plumes” of an odourless, carcinogenic gas in the vicinity of a Scarborough, Ont., facility that used the chemical, called ethylene oxide, to sterilize medical equipment. 

Environment and Climate Change Canada and Health Canada classify ethylene oxide as a Schedule 1 chemical: definitely and highly toxic, with “a probability of harm at any level of exposure.” 

But while the factory’s presence near a school, church and dense neighbourhood caught the attention of the Environment Canada researchers that did the study, many residents didn’t hear about it. An investigation by The Narwhal and The Local, published earlier this year, found neighbours, local groups and even politicians were unaware of the facility, operated by a company called Sterigenics.

The company closed its Scarborough location in 2022 and set up shop in Mississauga, where it continues to operate. Despite settling lawsuits in the United States related to alleged increases in cancer rates near its facilities, Sterigenics’ move to Mississauga went unnoticed by many locals as well.

Kamal Syed said the 2,000-person congregation at the mosque he attends, Jame Masjid, had no idea the factory was just minutes away. “As soon as [this matter] becomes public knowledge, it’s going to create a really big uproar in the community,” Syed said.

Neither Sterigenics nor Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks responded to The Narwhal’s earlier questions about the company’s emissions or monitoring in the province. 

Many questions about Sterigenics’ operations in the Greater Toronto Area remain unanswered — here’s what we know so far.

Sterigenics settled lawsuits in the U.S. for almost half a billion dollars

Sotera Health, the Ohio-based company that owns Sterigenics, has been named in a series of American lawsuits brought by claimants who allege they developed illnesses, particularly cancers including leukemia, myeloma, lymphoma and breast cancer, because of ethylene oxide exposure. 

On its website, Sterigenics writes, “No generally accepted science demonstrates that low-level [ethylene oxide] exposure from Sterigenics’ facilities cause medical conditions. [Ethylene oxide] is a naturally occurring substance, unlike many other chemicals at issue in other environmental litigation. [Ethylene oxide] consistently occurs in the environment from natural/everyday human activity, often at levels above those to which the general public is exposed to long-term from the Sterigenics facilities.”

In 2023, the company agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit in Illinois, paying claimants US$408 million. It’s also paying out US$35 million in Georgia. In both instances, Sterigenics said the settlements should not be considered an “admission of liability.” A suit filed by the New Mexico attorney general and a fine in California are pending, and none of those allegations have been proven in court. 

Sterigenics did not respond to detailed questions about its operations or legal issues in the U.S. 

Unlike in Illinois and other American locations, where high local cancer rates put Sterigenics’ operations under scrutiny, geographic cancer data for specific postal codes is essentially impossible for the public to access in Ontario. Local health networks and Cancer Care Ontario were not able to provide this information to The Narwhal. A director of data quality at ICES, a non-profit research institute funded in part by the Ontario Ministry of Health that collects provincial health data, said the organization is barred by the provincial Personal Health Information Act from sharing regional cancer data, even anonymized.

High levels of ethylene oxide were detected near a now-closed Sterigenics facility in Scarborough

Elisabeth Galarneau, an air quality researcher with Environment and Climate Change Canada, was the lead scientist on a team studying ethylene oxide emissions in late 2021. The researchers used mobile air sampling equipment to take measurements at locations in Toronto and surrounding areas. 

At one point, concentrations in the vicinity of the Scarborough plant got as high as 18 parts per billion — higher than the maximum concentration observed at the Illinois Sterigenics facility, which was 12 parts per billion.

“The Sterigenics facility was by far the highest concentration that we measured,” Galarneau said. Her study showed there was more ethylene oxide in the air around Sterigenics’ fence than anywhere else she observed in Toronto.

Over a period of three days, Galarneau’s study found average ethylene oxide concentrations of 0.43 parts per billion in the air in the vicinity of Scarborough’s now-closed Sterigenics plant. This suggests emissions may have pushed ethylene oxide levels in ambient air above Ontario’s health-based guideline: while her team’s longest study period was just 37 minutes, the guideline recommends no more than 0.11 parts per billion measured over a 24-hour period and 0.022 parts per billion measured on an annual basis.

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Notably, these are just guidelines: there are currently no enforceable federal regulations related to emissions of ethylene oxide. 

What companies are required to do is report emissions to a federal inventory, although there are no legally binding regulations that monitor, cap or ban them. Sterigenics began reporting emissions in 2004 for the Scarborough location, and reported a decrease in emissions in recent years. In 2019, the company reported 0.88 tonnes of ethylene oxide. In 2020 that number was down to 0.19 tonnes. That year, Sterigenics noted in a comment on its “pollution prevention” activities that it had “Routed exhaust from one emissions source to an emissions control device. This change reduced emissions released to the environment.”

Despite this, the high levels of ethylene oxide that researchers measured in the vicinity of the plant were recorded in 2021 — after the company said it took that step to reduce its emissions. 

Sterigenics did not answer detailed questions about emissions reductions measures in Scarborough or Mississauga, its procedures to protect workers or the potentially harmful effects of ethylene oxide. 

Now worried, residents say they were unaware of the Scarborough and Mississauga facilities

No level of government seems to have informed the public of the Environment Canada report, or of Sterigenics’ presence in Ontario. 

In Scarborough, both MPP Doly Begum, who has represented the Scarborough Southwest riding for six years, and newly minted Toronto Coun. Parthi Kandavel said in the spring that they had not heard of Sterigenics. “I can fairly say that the communities are likely very much unaware of [the factory],” Kandavel said. 

No nearby residents or local groups The Narwhal and The Local spoke with in Scarborough and Mississauga previously knew of the facilities and their potential risks. 

Scarborough resident Catharine Heddle said she was “extremely alarmed” for her two children: now ages 18 and 20, they both attended the elementary school closest to the former Scarborough plant’s site. While ethylene oxide readings were high near the now-closed factory, the federal research did not confirm it was the source. 

“I was disappointed to be hearing about it from the news media, rather than from Environment Canada,” she said.

Sterigenics’ Mississauga facility has the less stringent of Ontario’s environmental permits

In Ontario, the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks regulates industrial air emissions, but a two-prong regulatory system allows for some emitters to avoid more rigorous oversight. Environmental Compliance Approvals are the more stringent of the two available permits. 

But Sterigenics instead operates under the Environmental Activity and Sector Registry, which only requires a company to submit a nine-page checklist to the ministry’s online portal and pay a fee of $2,353. Companies can commence operations as soon as they are listed on the public registry. The registry was established for “less complex, lower risk” industrial activities such as “non-hazardous waste transportation” and “small ground-mounted solar facilities,” according to the ministry website. 

When the two-stream system for regulations was established in 2010, the ministry did “not appear to have any plan in place to ensure inspections and enforcement of these types of activities,”  Ramani Nadarajah, a lawyer with the Canadian Environmental Law Association, said.

“All they have to do is simply fill out an application and simply file it on the registry and they’re good to go. There is no upfront review,” Nadarajah said. “There’s no consideration of a proactive assessment to determine where the facility is located in a residential area, or it’s next to sensitive receptors such as daycare or hospitals. None of that is really considered in the process to determine whether the facility should be allowed to operate.”

The ministry did not respond to The Narwhal’s questions about how the factory qualified for the less stringent regulatory option. Sterigenics responded with a statement that its “state-of-the-art Mississauga facility deploys the most advanced safety and environmental technology available and was constructed in full compliance with federal, provincial and local regulations.”

In response to questions from The Narwhal and The Local for the May investigation, staff at the City of Mississauga said Sterigenics had the stricter provincial Environmental Compliance Approval, but later said this information was provided in error. 

The city said it accidentally provided information for “another company with a very similar name,” and that Sterigenics does not have an Environmental Compliance Approval, after all. This means the Environment Ministry was not required to seek comment from the city for the permit — or from the public, as it would have been under the approval system.

Internal emails obtained by The Narwhal revealed confusion among city staff about the facility and how it is regulated — officials seemed to have realized that the company’s permit allows for self-monitoring of its air pollution only after The Narwhal began asking questions. 

“There’s a big gap in regulatory oversight,” Nadarajah said. “I don’t think there’s any question about that.”

It’s not clear if governments in Canada will tighten emission regulations

The 2021 study monitoring ethylene oxide levels in Toronto was only possible because the researchers rented highly specialized air monitoring equipment from a company in the United States.

In a statement, Environment and Climate Change Canada said that a necessary part of the monitoring equipment that is available in Canada is “undergoing a retrofit such that there are no immediate plans to make new measurements.” 

The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks did not respond to The Narwhal’s detailed questions about how the province has been monitoring Sterigenics’ Mississauga location. In July, the department told CBS News in a statement that Sterigenics has been on the Environmental Activity and Sector Registry since May 2020. 

The ministry representative continued that, like all businesses on the registry, “Sterigenics was required to first assess its emissions by hiring a licensed engineering professional to prepare an emission summary and dispersion modelling report. The report indicates that emissions from Sterigenics’ Mississauga facility meet Ontario’s air standards for ethylene oxide.” 

A Sterigenics spokesperson told The Narwhal earlier this year that “Sterigenics’ state-of-the-art Mississauga facility deploys the most advanced safety and environmental technology available and was constructed in full compliance with federal, provincial and local regulations.”

Last year, the company told the National Observer its new Mississauga location is equipped with a “state-of-the-art emissions control system” that can capture “99.9 per cent of total ethylene oxide emissions.” 

The City of Mississauga and Ontario’s Environment Ministry did not answer questions from The Narwhal about whether either is recommending changes for how Sterigenics’ emissions are regulated. While Health Canada is currently evaluating its risk management approach to ethylene oxide, it is unclear when the agency will publish the data it is collecting.

— Compiled by Jacqueline Ronson