South Memphis residents living near Sterilization Services of Tennessee, the Florida Street facility emitting a cancer-causing gas into the air, are receiving new rules from the Environmental Protection Agency with mixed emotions.
On Thursday, the EPA announced new rules in the Clean Air Act to cut down on harmful air pollution from chemical plants, including ethylene oxide, or EtO, following their recent move in March targeting companies such as SST to reduce emissions by 90%.
Facilities have two to three years to comply, but in Memphis, that may not matter—SST is supposed to move long before then. According to a letter the company’s attorneys sent to elected officials last summer, SST is closing its Memphis facility as of April 30.
Yet people living near SST say they are in the dark — once again — about the status of the company’s relocation plans. Community members believe they deserve repair for their exposure to a cancer-causing gas that has been leaking from the plant for four decades.
“[I think] about all this contaminated air as a kid and even as an adult,” said Yolonda Spinks, who grew up near the plant and lives with anxiety about her health and that of her family. Her mother, who also lived near SST, was diagnosed with stomach cancer and later died.
“It’s a constant scare for me and why I am so intentional about preventative care … because I grew up in a toxic cesspool.”
A response neither timely or transparent
In South Memphis, SST’s pollution didn’t come from smokestacks.
The facility disperses EtO, which is colorless and odorless, in a chamber to sterilize medical supplies. Breathing it in over many years can cause illnesses such as leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and stomach and breast cancers. According to the EPA, about 86% of SST’s emissions have bypassed a device designed to break down the chemical before its release into the air.
The emissions likely escaped through gaps in windows and doors, ventilation systems, and leaks. During the 1980s, they were released in significant concentrations, with as much as 178,400 pounds of EtO emitted in 1988. Since the 1980s, SST has drastically lowered their emissions, with levels now in the lower thousands.
Children who grew up around SST were the most vulnerable because their developing bodies made them more susceptible to DNA mutation.
Spinks, 45 and now the communications director with Memphis Community Against Pollution, is part of that demographic. As a young girl, she lived and went to school just a couple of miles from the plant. She recalled as a student at Riverview Elementary, her teachers kept windows open because they didn’t have air conditioning.
From her community’s perspective, federal and local agencies haven’t been timely or transparent in addressing a public health emergency. That’s why, for over a year, Spinks has tirelessly sought clear information about SST and EtO through public hearings and phone calls to elected officials and local and federal agencies. She even traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby against SST, one of the riskiest EtO-emitting facilities in the country.
As SST’s move-out date rapidly approaches, she’s back on the phone again, seeking answers.
Her South Memphis community is seeking something too: reparations. Through a class action lawsuit filed in August against SST, people are looking for financial and medical support with comprehensive cancer screenings and preventive care measures.
The lawsuit, which MCAP isn’t involved in, can potentially establish a new legal precedent for such medical monitoring claims. While it could help thousands of people, navigating this complex litigation through the court system could take several years.
So justice right now is taking a different form: SST following through with their plans to move out.
In late March, MCAP President KeShaun Pearson and Spinks convened residents and environmental advocates at Riverside Missionary Baptist Church for a community meeting about next steps. Like Spinks, Pearson, too, feels he has a personal stake in the matter; his aunt, who had a beauty salon around the corner from SST, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.
“A plan is not a promise. We are used to corporations who come in and they say one thing and then they do another … I just want us to be focused and mindful that we might still have to continue to fight that fight,” Pearson told the crowd.
MCAP has not heard directly from SST about their move-out status. MLK50: Justice Through Journalism also contacted the company but did not receive a response. However according to the Shelby County Health Department, which oversees air quality in Memphis, it has not received any new permit renewal applications from SST.
In the interim, SCHD is maintaining the status quo with existing regulations until the EPA’s new limit for EtO is enacted. MCAP and its attorneys with the Southern Environmental Law Center have openly criticized SCHD’s approach to managing EtO, perceiving it as lackluster.
It’s why Pearson and Spinks are devising their strategies to ensure that SST’s plan materializes.
“I know as long as we fight, we win,” said Pearson. “We have proved that over and over again.”
Ashli Blow is a freelance writer who covers environmental science and policy. Her stories range from the lives of people in urban watersheds to those who roam the wilderness. She was raised in Memphis and produced breaking news at WMC Action News 5. She has now been working in journalism and strategic communications for nearly 10 years. Ashli lives in Seattle and is a graduate student at the University of Washington, studying climate policy.
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