Lake County Gazette

An air quality expert has questioned the legal foundation and scientific context of a report calling out the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for not going far enough in warning residents living close to plants that emit ethylene oxide (EtO), an agent used to sterilize medical equipment.

Rich Trzupek, a scholar with The Heartland Institute, told the Lake County Gazette that a report from the EPA’s own Office of the Inspector General inappropriately calls for the agency to exceed its authority under federal law. The report, he says, also presents a distorted picture of the risk from EtO, a chemical that provides “amazing benefits,” by not presenting the risks from thousands of other chemicals the same way.

“This idea of EPA stepping on the states in order to interact with individual citizens about one particular risk among millions of risks is not something Congress contemplated when passing the Clean Air Act and its amendments,” Trzupek wrote in an email.

EPA

“That’s a position, and if you’re among those who think the world revolves around the Beltway, it’s surely an attractive one. I might even be tempted to agree if I thought EtO emissions presented some kind of super-extraordinary risk. The IG report quotes risk assessment data, but it does not put that data in any sort of context.”

The IG report on EtO caught EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler off guard, according to a news release the agency issued after the report went public.

“The tone and substance of this report indicates a disconnect in the US EPA IG’s office,” Wheeler said. “Most surprising is that in our final meeting with the Inspector General's Office on this matter they provided no indication that there would be any unresolved issues. As a result, we are formally requesting the EPA IG rescind the report so it can be appropriately updated.”

The agency went on to say EPA has been “vigorously working with all manner of impacted communities and stakeholders potentially impacted by ethylene oxide (EtO) emissions.”

Trzupek said that targeting the agency’s EtO response was “sad.”

“It’s utterly ridiculous to pick out one chemical and the risks associated with that chemical in complete isolation from the rest of an industrial world that uses a multitude of chemicals – some more dangerous, some less – and complain that EPA is falling down on the job because the agency isn’t being sufficiently hysterical in this isolated case.”

Medline in Waukegan uses EtO to sterilize masks, gowns and other medical equipment in high demand during the COVID-19 crisis.