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Washington, 3M: 20510

October 25, 2018

The Honorable Andrew Wheeler
Acting Administrator

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Avenue NW.
Washington DC. 20004

Dear Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler:

We write to request the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) perform an in-
depth investigation of ethylene oxide emissions at two facilities in Lake County, Illinois?
Medline Industries, Inc. in Waukegan and Vantage Specialty Chemicals, Inc. in Gurnee.

The National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) is a critical public health tool that EPA and
other agencies use to identify sources of pollution and potential risks to public health. Since the
release of the 2014 NATA, EPA has worked to address public concern about increased cancer
risks in DuPage County due to emissions from the Sterigenics facility in Willowbrook. The
same assessment identi?ed emissions from the Medline and Vantage facilities as possibly
leading to increased cancer risk in the Lake County area. Given this discovery, we request the
EPA work with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to:

0 Conduct ambient air monitoring and stack tests to identify any emissions from the
Medline and Vantage facilities and determine whether these facilities are in compliance
with existing Clean Air Act (CAA) regulations.

- Guarantee both companies are taking the necessary steps to limit emissions using
any available pollution control technologies, as the Sterigenics facility did;

I Make all test data publicly available and hold a public meeting to assure residents that
steps are being taken to mitigate the exposure in Lake County; and

0 Publish the threshold public health standard EPA will use to determine if the fugitive 
emissions from Vantage Specialty Chemicals, Inc. or Medline Industries, Inc. exceed
levels that science deems safe.

In addition, we urge EPA to publish a timeline for when it will revise the current CAA
standards to limit future emission are limited to a level deemed safe by the 2016 Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and 2014 NATA reports. These recent reports have
shown that the existing standards need to be lowered to protect public health in communities
across the county.

Thank you for considering our requests, and we look forward to your response.

Sincerely

 

Em g? 
ICHARD J. DURBTN TAM DUCKWORTH S. SCHNEIDER

United States Senator Unite States Senator United States Representative