Ethylene oxide Technical Reviews and Outreach to Potentially Affected Communities Status Report Sterigenics US LLC Willowbrook Ill

Ethylene oxide: Technical Reviews and Outreach to Potentially Affected Communities

Status Report -- Sterigenics US LLC, Willowbrook, III.

As EPA pursues its mission to protect public health and the environment, addressing ethylene
oxide (EtO) remains a major priority for the Agency. EPA's National Air Toxics
Assessment (NATA), released in August 2018, identified a number of areas (census tracts) with
potentially elevated risk from continuous exposure, over 70 years, to EtO in the outdoor air.
NATA estimated these risks based on EtO emissions from 2014, which were the most recently
available at the time.

NATA is a screening-level analysis that is intended to identify pollutants or areas for closer
examination. Because of this, additional work is needed to better understand emissions in
areas that NATA identified as potentially having elevated risk. EPA has been supporting its state
air agency partners as they conduct that work and identify opportunities for reducing EtO
emissions from individual facilities, while the Agency reviews its national regulations for
industrial facilities that emit EtO. Actual risks today may be higher or lower than NATA
estimated due to several factors, including updated or more refined facility emissions
information, or recent facility changes such as the installation of pollution controls.

The information below describes the technical analyses conducted for Sterigenics Willowbrook,
as part of the follow-up work conducted since NATA was issued in August 2018. It also
summarizes outreach to nearby communities about the NATA results. EPA is providing this
information, in part, in response to the EPA Office of Inspector General's March 31, 2020,
Management Alert which called on EPA to provide information to the 25 communities that
NATA identified as potentially having the highest risk from EtO emissions.

Note: For commercial sterilizers, EPA is compiling more current and complete emissions data to
generate new risk estimates for ethylene oxide sterilizers across the country as part of its work
to develop a proposed revision for the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air
Pollutants for EtO sterilization facilities. EPA will share this information, which will include
refined risk estimates at the census block level, with the public as part of its upcoming
proposed rule.

Technical reviews conducted:

Sterigenics operated a commercial sterilizer that used EtO to sterilize medical equipment and
other products in Willowbrook, III. from 1984 to 2019.

• Closure: Sterigenics announced it was permanently closing its Willowbrook location in
September 2019, resulting in EtO emission reductions of more than 4,600 pounds per
year. The facility had been subject to a State of Illinois seal order, issued in February
2019, which prohibited EtO use. Before the closure, Sterigenics received a construction
permit from Illinois EPA to install new technology that would have achieved 99.9%
control.

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•	Air Monitoring: EPA conducted initial short-term air sampling over three days in May
2018. EPA conducted additional monitoring at eight sites from November 2018 to
March 2019. The highest average EtO concentrations were observed at the two sites
closest to Sterigenics (100 meters).

•	Risk Assessment: EPA conducted a risk assessment, presented the results at the public
meeting in Burr Ridge, III. on May 29, 2019 and posted a summary of the results to the
Web. EPA posted the full risk assessment report to the Web on August 16, 2019.

Outreach conducted:

•	Websites: EPA developed a Willowbrook-specific website in August 2018. Illinois EPA
also has a website to keep stakeholders informed.

•	Public Meetings: EPA attended a public meeting convened by Willowbrook Mayor Frank
Trilla on August 28, 2018. EPA led public meetings on November 28, 2018 and May 28,
2019 to update the community. These meetings were organized with community and
local officials' participation. Illinois EPA held a public meeting on August 1, 2019 to
answer questions about Sterigenics' draft construction permit.

•	Meetings with Local Officials: On September 28, 2018, November 29, 2018, and May
28, 2019, EPA held in-person meetings with elected officials and/or staff from the State
of Illinois, the Village of Willowbrook and/or DuPage County. Representatives from
Senator Durbin, Senator Duckworth and Congressman Lipinski's offices also attended
the meetings. EPA held numerous meetings with village and state officials, along with
congressional staff, about data from air monitoring near the Willowbrook facility. The
agency also participated in numerous calls from individual officials at their request.

•	Meetings with Community Groups: EPA held a series of webinars to present monitoring
results and educate the local community about topics such as air toxics, risk assessment
and EPA's rulemaking process. In addition, the agency held a meeting with community
group leaders on May 28, 2019, to discuss risk assessment results so the groups could
prepare to ask questions at the May 29, 2019 public meeting.

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