EPA Delayed Risk Communication and Issued Instructions Hindering Region 5’s Ability to Address Ethylene Oxide Emissions
The EPA delayed communicating health risks to community residents in Illinois, which is part of EPA Region 5, who lived near the region’s ethylene oxide-emitting facilities. Specifically, Office of Air and Radiation leadership delayed informing the Willowbrook, Illinois, community about the results of the EPA’s short-term monitoring around the Sterigenics facility and did not conduct public meetings with residents either near the Medline facility in Waukegan, Illinois, or the Vantage facility in Gurnee, Illinois. Outside of the residual risk review process, the Office of Inspector General did not identify any statutory, regulatory, or specific policy requirements or protocols to disclose public health information about ethylene oxide emissions. The EPA’s mission statement and risk communication guidance state, however, that communities should have accurate information to participate in decision-making processes.
According to two Region 5 managers, a then-senior leader in the Office of Air and Radiation, who was
a political appointee, instructed Region 5 to not conduct inspections at ethylene oxide-emitting facilities unless invited by the state to conduct a joint inspection. Region 6 managers and inspectors stated that they did not receive such policy instructions. Office of Air and Radiation senior leaders also issued additional instructions that hindered Region 5’s ability to effectively address ethylene oxide emissions, according to Region 5 personnel.
