Members of the Laredo business community, in collaboration with the Clean Air Laredo Coalition and District VII City Council member Vanessa Perez invite business owners to attend a forum to find solutions to eliminate the high level of carcinogenic emissions of ethylene oxide (EtO) from Midwest Sterilization Corp.
Killam Industrial Park business owners are the focus of this event, but it is also open to elected officials and other community leaders to become better informed of the significant cancer risk that is being caused by EtO emissions from Midwest in Laredo, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data. The forum will take place Tuesday, May 3, at 6:30PM at the Fasken Community Center (15201 Cerralvo Dr.)
The event is co-sponsored by the Rio Grande International Center.
Ethylene oxide is a mutagenic DNA-damaging gas that is being emitted into the Laredo air by Midwest Sterilization Corp. (located in the Killam Industrial Park). Exposure to EtO is known to increase the risk of developing cancers of the white blood cells such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma, myeloma, lymphocytic leukemia, as well as breast cancer.
The area within five miles of Midwest – see map1 below – has one of the highest cancer risk levels in the U.S. (top 95%-100%) meaning that those living in the affected area have a higher cancer risk of developing cancer from air pollution compared to 95% of all other Americans. KIP businesses are among the most heavily affected by Midwest’s EtO emissions because of their close proximity to the site. Employees and business owners within the KIP have an average cancer risk of 1-in-560 – see map 2 below – far above the upper limit considered acceptable by the EPA of 1-in-10,000 and much higher than EPA’s ideal of 1-in-1 million.
Forum speakers include business owners Ricardo Sandoval and Alejandra Arguindegui; attorney Daniel Elizondo; and biologist Urszula Tanouye,, a resident of Willowbrook, Illinois who will share her experiences as a community organizer around ethylene oxide.
For further information, go to cleanairlaredo.org.
(The Clean Air Laredo Coalition is a group of concerned citizens, parents, elected officials, and local governing entities such as the City of Laredo, Webb County, United ISD and Laredo ISD that seeks to address elevated cancer risks in Laredo by removing ethylene oxide from the air that we breathe.)
