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* Better Government Association…
Chicagoans in minority neighborhoods on the West Side and South Side have the greatest exposure to toxic air pollution and other environmental health hazards in the city, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis that community groups are using to fight Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s industrial planning practices.
The findings were compiled by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group that plans to use the document to try to persuade city officials to end the common practice of steering scrap yards, distribution warehouses and other polluting businesses to neighborhoods with large concentrations of Latino and African-American residents.
Among the most dramatically affected communities, the group found, are Little Village, Pilsen and the far Southeast Side.
Activists in those communities say Emanuel’s city planners are pushing dirty industries to majority Latino and black communities, while neighborhoods like Lincoln Park on the more well-to-do North Side are shedding their industrial past for new condo buildings and high-end amenities.
* Meanwhile, you may recall this TV ad last summer from the American Chemistry Council touting US Rep. Peter Roskam…
That $209,000 TV ad buy and $185,050 in chemical industry contributions are coming back to haunt Roskam.
* Tribune…
But the ad takes on new meaning now that the Sterigenics sterilization facility just outside Roskam’s west suburban district is under fire for emitting ethylene oxide, a highly potent, cancer-causing gas made by Dow Chemical, Union Carbide, Shell and several other members of the trade group.
Two months after the chemical industry’s pro-Roskam ad began airing, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a report revealing that communities surrounding the Sterigenics facility in Willowbrook are among just a few dozen in the country facing alarmingly high cancer risks from toxic air pollution, most notably ethylene oxide emissions. […]
Roskam’s supporters in the chemical industry have a dramatically different view.
Soon after the EPA released its report, the industry trade group quietly urged President Donald Trump’s administration to scuttle a stringent safety limit for ethylene oxide adopted in 2016 after more than a decade of debate. The agency relied heavily on the safety limit when it calculated its worrisome estimates of cancer risks in communities surrounding Sterigenics and other facilities across the nation that either manufacture or use the chemical.
Chemical companies are pushing the Trump EPA to declare that ethylene oxide is far less dangerous than the agency’s career staff and three separate panels of independent scientists determined. Industry-supported scientists have repeatedly downplayed animal research showing the chemical mutates DNA and studies of medical sterilization workers who suffered high rates of breast cancer, leukemia and lymphomas.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Oct 25, 18 @ 1:21 pm
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==and studies of medical sterilization workers who suffered high rates of breast cancer, leukemia and lymphomas.==
That isn’t a very nice bonus to get from your job.
Comment by Da Big Bad Wolf Thursday, Oct 25, 18 @ 1:28 pm
I am really surprised that both Casten and Pritzker have not pushed the Sterigenics issue more. They can even cite Durkin and Curran who are two GOP’s pushing for change and pointing fingers.
Comment by TominChicago Thursday, Oct 25, 18 @ 1:29 pm
Coal companies and tobacco companies in the past claimed coal dust and tobacco weren’t harmful. When money and profits are involved, some companies don’t care about people being harmed, only the bottom line.
Comment by Steve Polite Thursday, Oct 25, 18 @ 1:35 pm
Not sure how a distribution warehouse is a polluting business (2nd paragraph).
Comment by siualum Thursday, Oct 25, 18 @ 1:51 pm
–Not sure how a distribution warehouse is a polluting business (2nd paragraph). –
Because trucks are driving in and out of the loading decks continuously. Some such centers are located next to … primary schools in affected neighborhoods.
Comment by dbk Thursday, Oct 25, 18 @ 2:05 pm
Perhaps the next Chicago mayor can bring back the environmental department to help advise on where to locate industries that handle or generate hazardous materials and make sure they’re taking appropriate steps to minimize the health and safety risks to neighboring communities.
Comment by Going nuclear Thursday, Oct 25, 18 @ 2:52 pm
==Perhaps the next Chicago mayor can bring back the environmental department==
Chicago mayors don’t have much jurisdiction in DuPage County.
Comment by supplied_demand Thursday, Oct 25, 18 @ 3:40 pm
= Chicago mayors don’t have much jurisdiction in DuPage County. =
They do in Little Village, Pilsen and the far southeast side, which were identified in the BGA report as the west and south side neighborhoods that are most impacted by toxic air pollution and environmental health hazards in Chicago.
Comment by Going nuclear Thursday, Oct 25, 18 @ 6:09 pm
–Not sure how a distribution warehouse is a polluting business (2nd paragraph). –
It’s not a distribution center. It’s a facility that uses ethylene oxide gas to disinfect equipment, then vents the gas outside. A lot of trucks go in and out, but mainly they’re dropping off/picking up equipment to be processed.
Comment by Checkers Thursday, Oct 25, 18 @ 6:11 pm