Please sign this petition to show your support for contacting school employees letting them know they were exposed to Sterigenics and where they can find more information. School Board Members need to hear from you to know that community members want this to happen.

As part of our continuing mission to inform community members about their exposure to ethylene oxide from Sterigenics, we are asking local school districts to inform their current and former employees about their exposure through a letter or email. Workers are less likely to have heard about Sterigenics if they don't live in our area, especially if they've already retired or moved on to other employment. We think it's important that these individuals are at least told they were exposed so they can choose what to do with that information like increased health screenings or asking for representation. While we understand that contact information has not been retained for every employee in the relevant time range, we are asking for a good faith effort to contact additional employees to the extent practicable. 

Below is our letter to the School Board asking them to take action:

Dear Members of the District 86 Board of Education,

Thank you for taking a few important steps to begin notifying district employees of their exposure to ethylene oxide, particularly in signing resolution 20.20 (https://d86.hinsdale86.org//cms/lib/IL01904717/Centricity/Domain/442/Resolution%2020.20%20Regarding%20Sterigenics%20U.S.%20LLC%20Willowbrook%20Illinois.pdf ) and sending notification letters to a small subset of retired employees.

As you know, this is an air pollutant that is known to cause cancer at very small exposures. According to a Risk Assessment performed by the US EPA using 2018 emissions, cancer risk was elevated above Clean Air Act regulated levels for anyone living or working in the area surrounding Sterigenics for at least 6 miles, which includes the South, Central, Transition Center, and Administrative buildings and grounds. Calculated risks ranged from about 1000 times target levels in close proximity to Sterigenics down to target levels (1 in 1 million) for about 6 miles in each direction and continued to have non-negligible effects for about 25 miles in each direction, which essentially includes the entire Chicago metro area. 

For perspective, emissions in 2018 were approximately 4,000 lbs. In the 2000's, emissions averaged about 5,000 per year. In the 1990's, emissions averaged about 25,000 lbs per year. In the 1980's, emissions were as high as 170,000 lbs per year. Cancer risk scales with exposure, meaning that the longer individuals are exposed or the larger the exposure amount, the greater the cancer risk, genetic variability not withstanding. 

The reason we are asking for an expansion of employee notification is that there are proactive measures individuals can take once they know about their exposure. Namely, physicians recommend greater attention to breast cancer early detection for women and increased blood cancer screenings universally. These can be included as part of regular well visits if the individual knows to ask for them. The followup of subtle signs of other cancers including cancers of the stomach, pancreatic, and brain can be followed up with knowledge of environmental carcinogen exposure where these symptoms might otherwise be neglected until more advanced stages of cancer manifest. Additionally, knowledge of ethylene oxide exposure gives individuals the information they need to pursue personal injury claims against the polluter, if appropriate.

Unlike students and their families, who are more likely to have heard about Sterigenics and ethylene oxide pollution over the past year or so given their location of residence and ties to the area, employees and especially former employees are less likely to have received this information. The district can play an important role in disseminating this health impacting information and has financial (health insurance cost) and moral reasons to do so. Indeed, the board recently agreed that communication with impacted community members is desirable, particularly in section 7 of Resolution 20.20. As we move away from the phase of removing the pollution source from our community, we would like to put a greater focus on dealing with the effects of decades of known exposure. 

While we applaud the initiative to contact about 200 former employees recently, records indicate that approximately 1600 known current and former employees have been impacted by ethylene oxide and deserve the courtesy of a letter from their employer informing them of the exposure and directing them to outside resources for further information. We would like to offer our knowledge, expertise, and resources to assist the district in fulfilling this important moral obligation. Please feel free to contact us further. We are here to help.

Sincerely,

Citizens 4 Clean Air & Stop Sterigenics