News


  • Mar 30, 2020, 09:49 AM

Ethylene Oxide Update #34: March 30, 2020

This update includes:

  • IEPA reports that Medline Industries completed compliance testing for Public Act 101-22
  • Following compliance, IEPA authorized Medline Industries to resume commercial sterilization operations using ethylene oxide
  • Lake County Health Department, Gurnee and Waukegan to conduct additional sampling
  • Sampling expected to resume shortly

On March 27, 2020 the Illinois EPA announced that Medline Industries, Inc. in Waukegan has successfully completed the required compliance testing pursuant to Public Act 101-22. The testing regiment included the facility’s negative pressure system, continuous emissions monitoring system and stack emissions. The testing was conducted by a third-party contractor with on-site supervision from the IEPA.  Now that the facility has met the requirements of Public Act 101-22, it is authorized to resume full commercial sterilization operations.  The announcement can be found at:  https://www2.illinois.gov/Pages/news-item.aspx?ReleaseID=21315

In conjunction with Medline resuming operations the Lake County Health Department, Village of Gurnee and City of Waukegan then will conduct 30-days of additional sampling (120 samples total).  The results will be submitted to the Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry (ATSDR) and Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) for a health risk assessment. The current estimate is that this assessment will be completed four to six months following the completion of Phase III testing.

The verification reports and stack test reports for Medline Industries are available at: https://www2.illinois.gov/epa/topics/community-relations/sites/ethylene-oxide/Pages/default.aspx

The results of the all previous testing be viewed at: https://www.lakecountyil.gov/4188/EtO-Monitoring-Results

The spreadsheet of all results is available at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mrY1MbFWUT5-ysl7SpD74CKMKOMo4x9i5wZAArdYJ2k/edit?usp=sharing

To keep up to date on Ethylene Oxide in Gurnee, visit www.gurnee.il.us/eto