Cluster Of Cancer Risk Caused By 2 Lake County Sites

WAUKEGAN, IL — Two facilities in Lake County release the same carcinogenic chemical into the air as the Sterigenics facility in Willowbrook, but one of them was not included in the National Air Toxics Assessment released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in August because someone at the state level failed to provide estimates how much ethylene oxide it releases, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Emissions from the Medline Industries facility at 1160 S. Northpoint Blvd. in Waukegan are reflected on the EPA's map of toxic air quality and clusters of cancer risks. But ethylene oxide released from the Vantage facility at 3938 Porett Drive in Gurnee is not, according to the Tribune, citing state and federal officials who explained someone at the state level failed to provide the emissions number for inclusion in the map, which consists of data from 2014.

Ethylene oxide is the same cancer-causing substance emitted by a Sterigenics facility in Willowbrook. According to information Vantage provided for the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory, the Gurnee facility released 6,412 pounds of the substance in 2014, the Tribune reported. That's more than twice the 3,058 pounds released by Medline and reflected on the map and also more than the 5,566 pounds emitted by the controversial Sterigenics site.

There are more than 19,000 people living in the areas around the southwest Waukegan Medline facility. And housing for families of service personnel working in and around Naval Station Great Lakes and the Six Flags Great America amusement park are among the 23,000 people who live within a 2-mile radius of the Vantage facility, the Tribune reported.

Neither facility has been accused of violating limitations on the amount of pollution they can emit, but U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth told the Tribune that only demonstrates regulations on ethlyne oxide emissions are insufficient.

Federal, state and local officials have not commented on why they have not warned residents around the facility about the risks of the chemical emissions. Within an hour of the newspaper contacting Vantage, the company hired a Chicago-based crisis communication manager, according to the Tribune, who said the company recently provided updated information to the EPA indicating it did not release as much ethylene oxide than previously calculated.

Read more from the Chicago Tribune

Related:

• Cancer-Causing Gas: Madigan, DuPage Prosecutor Sue Sterigenics
• Politicians Speak Out Against Sterigenics, EPA
• Illinois House Committees Hold Sterigenics Hearing
• Willowbrook Families Retain Law Firm After Report Of Cancer Risk