CHICAGO — Nearly two years after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identified hot spots of ethylene oxide across the nation, the Trump administration still hasn’t told thousands of Americans they face elevated cancer risks from breathing the toxic pollution.
Trump appointees have failed to schedule public meetings or provide information about ethylene oxide in 16 of the 25 communities where the lifetime risk of developing cancer exceeds agency guidelines, according to a new report from the EPA’s inspector general.
The findings mirror reporting by The Chicago Tribune since August 2018, when the Trump EPA released the latest National Air Toxics Assessment without notice and left it up to state and local officials to decide for themselves whether to draw attention to elevated cancer risks in their communities.
Some have demanded aggressive action, most notably Willowbrook, a wealthy, predominantly white Chicago suburb where local officials hastily organized a community forum after learning about the pollution assessment.
Concerned about ethylene oxide emissions from a Sterigenics sterilization plant in the DuPage County village, residents and elected officials enlisted a bipartisan coalition that pressured the EPA to monitor air quality and take their concerns seriously.
“Our task force found independent experts to help us understand what we were dealing with,” Willowbrook Mayor Frank Trilla said this week. “Having the EPA hold public forums in communities is key. It is not a community’s responsibility to translate the EPA. Communities aren’t qualified to do that.”
More than a half-million Americans exposed to toxic air pollution face unacceptable cancer risks, according to EPA data mapped by the Tribune last year. Ethylene oxide is the chief chemical of concern.
Yet none of the other communities exposed to the toxic gas have received the same level of attention Willowbrook got from the EPA, including Lake County neighborhoods near a Medline Industries sterilization plant in north suburban Waukegan.
Others highlighted in the inspector general’s report are poor, black and Latino communities in Louisiana and Texas near chemical plants that manufacture ethylene oxide.
EPA officials didn’t break any laws, the report concluded. But the agency’s lack of outreach runs counter to one of the priorities outlined by Administrator Andrew Wheeler soon after he ascended to the top job.
“Risk communication goes to the heart of EPA’s mission of protecting public health and the environment,” Wheeler told EPA employees in a July 2018 speech. “We must be able to speak with one voice and clearly explain to the American people the relevant environmental and health risks that they face, that their families face and that their children face.”
Wheeler sharply disagreed with the inspector general’s report. The former Republican congressional aide and coal company lobbyist took the unprecedented step of urging the independent office to rescind its findings.
Among other things, Wheeler said, the EPA has held public hearings in Houston and Washington, D.C., about proposed updates to regulations for chemical plants that make ethylene oxide and commercial sterilization plants that use it.
“The tone and substance of this report indicates a disconnect in the U.S. EPA IG’s office,” Wheeler said in a statement.
Wheeler’s response prompted a rebuke from U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat who has criticized the administration’s response to hazards posed by ethylene oxide, also known as EtO.
“I’m disappointed that Administrator Wheeler is trying to bully the inspector general into rescinding this report,” Duckworth said. “I also urge Administrator Wheeler to reverse course on EPA’s recently proposed rule that fails to adequately reduce EtO exposure and protect public health.”
The Tribune reported in December that under increasing pressure from industry lobbyists, Wheeler and his aides agreed last year to reconsider how dangerous the toxic gas is to Americans.
Agency leaders adopted a stringent safety limit during the last days of the Obama administration, based on decades of research that determined ethylene oxide is harmful at extremely low concentrations. But drafts of the Trump administration’s proposed rules open the door to overruling career EPA scientists and two panels of independent scientists.
Redrafting the EPA’s evaluation to deem ethylene oxide less harmful would make the elevated cancer risks abruptly disappear on paper. Chemical companies and their customers would avoid government mandates to spend millions of dollars on pollution-control equipment, or perhaps stop using ethylene oxide altogether.
Absent federal action, some state and local officials have taken steps to protect their constituents.
In Illinois, a law crafted by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and state legislators requires industries to dramatically reduce emissions. Medline recently resumed operations after overhauling its Waukegan facility; Sterigenics closed its Willowbrook plant in September, citing an unstable regulatory landscape and a failure to broker a new deal on its lease amid opposition from community groups and local politicians.
Officials in suburban Atlanta forced another Sterigenics facility to shut down last year. A federal judge this week allowed the plant to temporarily reopen to sterilize personal protective equipment needed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Neighbors remain concerned about pollution from the Atlanta facility. So are community groups in Waukegan now that Medline has started using ethylene oxide again.
“The intentional neglect of the U.S. EPA will continue to have irreparable consequences not only for identified environmental justice communities but also for the members of the most vulnerable communities across the nation,” said Celeste Flores, a Gurnee resident who grew up in the area and now lives a mile from Medline.
Flores is the Lake County outreach coordinator for Faith in Place, a nondenominational coalition of religious leaders that focuses on environmental issues. Her advice:
“Since the EPA has chosen to abdicate its responsibility to the American people,” she said, “community members must advocate at every level of government for the basic human rights of safe and clean water and air.”
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