Firm Will Pay $500,000 Fine in Toxic Gas Case

A Long Beach herb processing company has agreed to pay $500,000 in civil fines for allegedly dumping thousands of pounds of toxic gas into the air and failing to warn as many as 50,000 residents who may have been exposed to the cancer-causing emissions, state prosecutors said Monday.

The settlement is the largest ever paid by a single firm under Proposition 65, the 1986 state law that requires businesses to provide a “clear and reasonable warning” before exposing anyone to chemicals known to be carcinogenic or to cause reproductive harm.

Botanicals International Inc.--which imports teas, spices and other herbs and sterilizes them for public consumption--was accused in the lawsuit filed last July of dumping more than 113,000 pounds of ethylene oxide into the air in 1988 and 1989. The chemical, used as a sterilant, has been listed as a carcinogen by the state since 1987.

“The people in the community were exposed to ethylene oxide at levels well above those deemed to be safe,” state Deputy Atty. Gen. Cliff Rechtschaffen said in San Francisco.

The state has no evidence that injuries resulted from emissions from the plant at 2550 El Presidio St. Rechtschaffen said his office did not investigate injuries during its six-month probe of the company because Proposition 65 does not require proof of harm, only failure to warn those exposed.

Immediately after the lawsuit was filed, the firm shut down its sterilizing operation--a sealed chamber into which ethylene oxide is pumped to rid herbs and other products of spores and bacteria. Pollution control equipment, designed to capture 99.9% of the toxins released from the chamber into the atmosphere, was promptly installed by the firm, Rechtschaffen said.

“They did do the responsible thing in shutting down for a month and putting in effective control measures,” Rechtschaffen said.

Steven Broiles, the Los Angeles attorney who represents the botanicals firm, said the company admitted no wrongdoing in agreeing to pay the settlement.

Times staff writer Richard C. Paddock in Sacramento contributed to this story.