Lake County blood tests find elevated EtO levels
UIC doctor rips emissions of ethylene oxide, as EPA drags feet on setting new regulations
Medline Industries in Waukegan: blood tests taken from residents living within a mile from the offices showed elevated levels of carcinogenic ethylene oxide. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
Initial results from blood tests conducted in Lake County find elevated levels of ethylene oxide in residents living about a mile from a company that uses the carcinogen in sterilizing medical equipment.
The tests were funded by the Centers for Disease Control and conducted by Dr. Susan Buchanan of the University of Illinois at Chicago after worries were raised about EtO emissions in Lake County similar to what caused Sterigenics to be shut down in Willowbrook earlier this year.
Buchanan released initial findings this week after taking blood samples from 93 Lake County residents. She found that EtO levels in the blood of residents living within a mile of Medline Industries in Waukegan were more than 1.5 times higher than what was found in those living farther away, which was close to expected base readings.
“There is no safe level of exposure to ethylene oxide, and this pilot project suggests that facilities that emit the chemical put nearby communities at risk,” said Buchanan, clinical associate professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the UIC School of Public Health.
A federal report released last year found an elevated cancer risk in the area surrounding Sterigenics in Willowbrook, which also uses EtO in sterilization. That led to the firm’s sterilization process being shut down by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency a month after Gov. Pritzker’s inauguration, and the firm announced in September that it would not reopen.
Lake County residents have called for similar studies to be done on the areas surrounding Medline Industries in Waukegan and Vantage Specialty Chemicals in Gurnee, both of which use EtO and emit it into the air. But until now data were lacking.
“These figures should be seen as a powerful call to action for community members and policymakers to hold companies accountable,” Buchanan said in a statement accompanying the data. “Facilities emitting dangerous chemicals like ethylene oxide should not be located near homes, schools, businesses, parks, or other areas frequently used by the public.”
The blood samples are expected to be used in an ongoing study being conducted by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which turned up the Willowbrook cancer cluster. Buchanan too called for additional testing, saying, “These results should be interpreted as pilot surveillance data only, as the population tested was not a random sample of participants and the total number of participants was relatively small. A research protocol should be developed to confirm these results.”
The blood work detected EtO in hemoglobin adducts. An average base reading on the established scale was 26, and Lake County residents living father away from Medline posted a mean reading of 29.8. But those living within a mile of Medline posted a mean reading of 50.1.
The grassroots group Stop EtO in Lake County issued a statement saying: “Our community members are not lab rats. We know EtO is a definitive carcinogen and mutagen. That’s all we need to know to finally put an end to this immoral situation. Ethylene oxide should not be emitted next to our homes and schools. It is time for common sense to prevail!”
“We find the recent UIC blood-study results alarming,” added Jolanta Pomiotlo of Stop EtO. “Knowing that children and residents living near the Medline sterilization facility have significantly elevated levels of EtO in their hemoglobin adducts leaves our citizens incredibly concerned. It is time for our local, state, and federal leaders to finally step in and put an end to the environment injustice in Lake County.
“We will persist until we succeed in banning EtO emissions next to our homes and schools.”
Medline issued a statement saying it would not comment on the pilot study, but it too called for additional testing, saying, “We do share the opinion that additional examination of EtO surrounding our Waukegan, Ill., facility should be done.” It added, “Medline regularly administers blood tests for Waukegan employees and has never found elevated EtO levels in 25 years.”
EtO was formally declared a carcinogen in the waning months of the Obama administration three years ago, but under President Trump the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency never reassessed permissible EtO emissions, allowing Sterigenics, Medline, and Vantage to all insist they were operating under legal limits.
Democrats in the Illinois congressional delegation have repeatedly called on the EPA to reset those EtO regulations. But the EPA stated last week that it was seeking additional information, amid charges that it was being influenced by lobbyists for the medical industry and the makers of devices intended to limit EtO emissions.
MedTech Dive reported last week: “EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler indicated the agency is taking into consideration the impact future regulations might have on the medtech industry, saying in a statement ‘medical device sterilization is vital to protecting public health.’ The agency said it is coordinating closely with (the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) and other federal agencies as it evaluates how to reduce emissions from commercial facilities.”
MedTech Dive previously reported that medical firms lobbied the EPA and FDA warning that setting emission regulations in keeping with the Obama administration’s 2016 data could lead to a shortage of sterilized medical equipment. An FDA official warned that a “catastrophic national impact” is “almost a certainty.”
The Union of Concerned Scientists was incredulous that the EPA might not even use the 2016 data in resetting regulations and called for the agency to “act with serious urgency” in addressing EtO emissions across the nation.
Pritzker signed a bill into law in June applying a “tourniquet” to EtO emissions, but Medline and Vantage continued to operate. Stop EtO pushed for an even stricter law to be passed, but it it failed to get through the General Assembly during the fall veto session, although it will still be pending when legislators return to Springfield next year.