Residents in Jessup and Hanover grapple with pollution risk from spice plants, as EPA proposes new rules

Two suburban Baltimore facilities that manufacture spices are at the center of the debate about an air pollutant that has attracted increased attention from the federal Environmental Protection Agency in recent years: ethylene oxide.

The Elite Spice plants in Hanover and Jessup emit the colorless, flammable gas used to sterilize seasonings. Last year, they made an EPA shortlist of 25 commercial sterilizers creating an elevated cancer risk for their nearest neighbor. A medical equipment sterilizing facility on Maryland’s Eastern Shore also made the list.

Since the data’s release, environmental officials say the facility is taking steps to reduce emissions of the hazardous gas, and new federal rules are poised to require further reductions, lowering the risk for workers and the surrounding community.

During a June 8 meeting at the Jessup Community Hall, officials from the EPA, as well as the Maryland environment and health departments, said the EPA decided to reevaluate ethylene oxide facility emissions, and make new national rules, because of updated assessments of the gas’s harm.

Recent studies also determined that commercial sterilizers release more of the hazardous gas than once thought, mainly through “fugitive emissions,” which don’t come from a facility’s smokestack, but instead circulate inside the building, and escape through windows, doors and vents.

“The current regulation on the books right now … only covers stack emissions. It does not cover fugitive emissions,” said Madeline Beal, the EPA’s senior risk communication adviser, during last week’s meeting. “And as we’ve done this work over the last few years, one of the things that we’ve learned that has really changed our thinking is that the majority of the risk is actually from fugitives.”

The EPA estimates its new regulations will cut ethylene oxide emissions from commercial sterilizers by 80%, slashing the cancer risk for surrounding communities below the threshold under the Clean Air Act. Under the regulations, undergoing a public comment period through June 27, facilities would have 18 months to make the modifications.

According to the EPA’s estimates last year, the two Elite Spice facilities, which are about 3 miles apart, presented an elevated risk to the community in a roughly 1,000-foot radius surrounding them.

Beyond that radius, the risk dissipates precipitously, but inside it, 100 people out of every 1 million would be expected to develop cancer as a result of ethylene oxide exposure, the EPA said. That analysis, however, assumes that each person spends 24 hours a day in the radius for 70 years.

Far fewer than a million people live in the tiny area highlighted by the EPA. In both Hanover and Jessup, the immediate surrounding areas are largely commercial. In Jessup, it includes a Royal Farms, a dog day care, a food truck and other businesses. In Hanover, the area includes a business park along Magellan Road.

The EPA figures have drawn some criticism, including from Maryland environmental officials.

In a July 2022 letter, then-Secretary of the Environment Horacio Tablada expressed concern that the federal agency was using imprecise modeling to assess the cancer risk.

”To the best of our knowledge EPA has never visited the [ethylene oxide] sources in Maryland to evaluate how the source operates, how emissions are controlled, or monitor the level of emissions being released,” read the letter from Tablada, who was appointed by former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.

After Elite Spice presented updated information for its Jessup facility, the risk declined below the EPA threshold of 100, to 90 cancer cases out of 1 million people, EPA officials said during last week’s meeting in Jessup. Online, EPA wrote in a disclaimer on the webpages for both facilities that the risk information “is not current.”

“We were disappointed that EPA chose to present data and theoretical modeling to the community which EPA acknowledged was outdated and imprecise,” said George Meyer, Elite Spice’s vice president of operations, in an email. ”Once informed of EPA’s new [ethylene oxide] risk assessments, Elite Spice immediately initiated actions to further reduce [ethylene oxide] emissions.”

Elite will “continue to assess the efficacy and viability of all alternative microbial reduction methods,” Meyer said.

According to the MDE, Elite made operational changes to increase the number and duration of air washes through the sterilization chambers to reduce the amount of ethylene oxide coming off the product once it’s removed for off-gassing. The company also applied for a permit that would allow it to substitute another chemical, propylene oxide, where possible.

The new federal rules also aim to reduce ethylene oxide exposure for workers by placing new requirements for air monitoring and protective gear.

For workers, the cancer risk is far higher than for surrounding communities. In commercial sterilization facilities, the EPA estimates the cancer risk is between 1 in 36 and 1 in 10, if individuals were exposed to the gas for eight hours a day, for 240 days per year, over a period of 35 years. In health care settings, the EPA’s models place the risk level slightly higher: between 1 in 25 and 1 in 12.

Some residents at the June 8 meeting said it was disconcerting that the community was largely unaware the facility emitted potentially harmful amounts of the gas.

”It’s great to bring it to our attention now,” said Jessup resident Lonnie Lawless. “But the spice company’s been here for 30-some years. Why haven’t we heard about this before?”

During the meeting, David Schmidt, 66, couldn’t help but think about his battle with a rare form of leukemia. For 14 years, Schmidt worked at a mechanic’s garage about a half mile from Elite Spice in Jessup, he said, and several of his small group of co-workers also developed cancer. His home, meanwhile, is about one mile from Elite Spice.

“I’m always looking for why,” he said. “But there’s so many variables. Working down at the shop, it was chemicals from painting and grease and all that. And I had a trucking company for almost 40 years, and the exhaust with that, and the chemicals you deal with.”

Schmidt and his wife said they’re more concerned for their children, though.

”Our kids were born in the same house that I grew up in, and went to Jessup Elementary. Our daughter’s still a teacher at Jessup Elementary. So, they’ve been here all their life,” Schmidt said.

Other community members said they were encouraged by the EPA’s figures and proposed rules.

“I’m not here like 24/7, and I’m not going to be here for 70 years,” said Jessica Breeding, who said she spends a significant amount of time within the EPA’s radius.

A few parents at Thursday’s meeting raised concerns about a soon-to-open elementary school, located a little more than a mile from the Elite Spice facility in Hanover, called Chesapeake Science Point.

“Wouldn’t that be a driver … to maybe push for more mitigation of the risk, since kids have a higher risk factor?” said Frederick Robbins, whose young daughter is to attend the school in the fall.

The issue has also caught the attention of the Washington, D.C.-based Union for Concerned Scientists.

The nonprofit is advocating for the EPA to institute on-the-ground air monitoring outside of commercial sterilizers, and regulate off-site warehouses (where spices may be brought to aerate, for instance). It also wants the agency to consider cumulative impacts for residents living near more than one facility emitting the gas.

One other commercial sterilizer in Maryland still uses the chemical, though it didn’t make EPA’s shortlist of polluting facilities last year. Fuchs North America, formerly Baltimore Spice Inc., relocated from Owings Mills to Hampstead in Carroll County in 2016, said Jay Apperson, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment.

In the 2010s, several local facilities halted their use of ethylene oxide, Apperson said, including the McCormick and Co. location in Hunt Valley, and a company called Baltimore Quality Assurance, located along Boston Street in the Canton Industrial Area.

The germ-killing gas has been considered a human carcinogen since 1994. Before that, it was considered a probable carcinogen. Exposure to ethylene oxide has been linked to leukemia, lymphoma and stomach and breast cancers, according to the National Cancer Institute.

But its use has continued for sterilizing spices as well as certain medical devices, since many cannot be sterilized with other methods, such as steam sterilization. It’s also used to make other chemicals, such as antifreeze.

According to the EPA, there is no risk associated with consuming ethylene oxide-treated spices or using medical equipment treated with the gas.

The new rules proposed by EPA also ban the use of the gas to clean other equipment, including musical instruments.

For some spice companies, meanwhile, making the switch to other sterilization methods isn’t feasible, said Laura Shumow, executive director of the American Spice Trade Association.

The association, which represents about 200 companies that grow, dehydrate and process spices, plans to submit a comment supporting the EPA’s proposal to reduce the amount of ethylene oxide that can be used in spices, and asking that the industry be given “sufficient time” to come into compliance with the new regulations, Shumow said. The association doesn’t support any effort to sunset the use of ethylene oxide for spices, she added.