Just days after announcing the reopening of its Waukegan plant, Medline announced that it made a commitment to the White House to reprocess 100,000 N95 respirators and other face masks, desperately needed in the fight against COVID-19.
In a March 30 press release, the company said that Chief Executive Officer Charlie Mills participated in a White House supply chain roundtable on Sunday, during which the President unveiled a new initiative to provide medical supplies to hospitals that have been struggling against the coronavirus.
“The healthcare systems of America are doing heroes’ work right now, and Medline will do all that we can to help them take care of patients and themselves through the pandemic,” Mills said in the release. “Whether it’s converting manufacturing capabilities to produce hand sanitizer or developing a creative way to renew face masks, we are pursuing every opportunity to make a difference.”
Medline CEO Charlie Mills
| Medline
The company also said its 45 U.S. distribution centers and 15 manufacturing facilities all continue to work all shifts to produce and distribute critical medical supplies.
Medline recently announced that its Waukegan plant is now in compliance with the Illinois EPA’s tough new standards for controlling emissions of ethylene oxide (EtO) after successful tests were conducted by a third party. The plant closed in December and retrofitted with $10 million of new controls to adhere the EPA’s new guidelines.
“At this critical time for the national public health, we are gratified that we can help supply sterile medical equipment to Illinois healthcare professionals working on the front lines and to clinicians battling COVID-19 across America,” Medline spokesman Jesse Greenberg said in a statement.
The plant has come under pressure from the community groups and elected officials over emissions of EtO, the sterilizing compound at the center of a local panic over media reports that it has been linked to certain cancers. Scientists have said that that levels of EtO found in the air near the plant are safe, and that other sources, including cars and trucks, account for most of the EtO detected. They also note that EtO is the only agent that can be used to sterilize many medical devices.
Last fall, another medical device company that uses EtO, Sterigenics, decided against reopening its plant in Willowbrook in light of the public sentiment against it, and increasing legislative and regulatory restrictions.
A Sterigenics plant in Georgia is reopening after Cobb County Commission Chairman Mike Boyce signed an emergency authorization to allow the plant to open on a “limited contingency basis.” This after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) urged Gov. Brian Kemp to allow the plant to reopen to help with the supply of medical equipment.
"Sterigenics told Cobb County it has at least 1 million items of PPE awaiting sterilization, among a host of other medical devices used by hospitals to treat patients,” the Cook County Record reported.
“The company further claimed it sterilizes a quarter of all PPE used in the world. And Sterigenics claimed it had ‘developed a safe method for rapid mask sterilization in China at the request of the Chinese Government.’"
Alerts Sign-up