Every day, hospitals across Illinois use surgical products that have been sterilized by Medline at our Waukegan facility. When you or a loved one enters an emergency room, rest assured that everything from the gowns to the syringes are not only free from contaminants but have been produced in a safe manner that places the well-being of our community first.
Our sterilization process relies on a vital chemical called ethylene oxide, which lawmakers may ban in Illinois. The science does not support such drastic action.
Medline carefully monitors our daily use of ethylene oxide and for nearly 25 years has consistently operated well below permitted emission levels. Lake County health officials reported last year that there are no known cancer clusters near our plant. Further, we have been working very closely with regulators including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Illinois EPA and the Food and Drug Administration to address concerns about ethylene oxide emissions.
Medline is in the process of installing a series of new controls approved by the state EPA that will abate more than 99.9% of all ethylene oxide used. These new, best-available controls are modeled to reduce the risk to the lowest level recognized by the EPA. Indeed, Medline’s emissions are projected to be cleaner than the ambient air surrounding our facility.
There is no viable alternative to ethylene oxide for the products we produce in our Waukegan facility. It is the only globally accepted, FDA-approved method for sterilizing many types of medical supplies and is currently used for this purpose worldwide.
Medline is committed to continuing to evaluate possible alternatives to ethylene oxide. Should a viable alternative be developed for the products we manufacture, we will eagerly adopt it. Until then, a ban on ethylene oxide would wreak havoc on our public health system. Hospitals, critical care facilities, and other health care facilities would be impacted immediately, limiting, delaying or even canceling the delivery of critical care. Our products are used for everything from tonsillectomies and C-sections to organ transplants, open-heart surgeries, knee replacements and trauma surgeries like car accidents.
Medline is a critical part of the Illinois health care supply chain, producing and sterilizing more than 16,000 sterile surgical packs per day, used by 135 hospitals in Illinois — nearly 80% of the state’s hospitals. Our Waukegan facility also sterilizes products for 20 other leading medical device manufacturers. Other suppliers simply could not make up the gap. On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration highlighted these concerns, noting that additional closures of facilities using ethylene oxide to sterilize medical devices could result in years of shortages that “could compromise patient care.”
Medline has operated in Waukegan and Lake County for 25 years. We provide stable, well-paying jobs with desirable benefits. In terms of dollars, last year Medline maintained a payroll of $34 million in Waukegan, paying $2 million to state and local taxing bodies.
Ethylene oxide is critical to our mission of providing life-saving products.
Lara Simmons is president of Medline’s Quality Division.
