Ethylene Oxide in Minnesota

All six of Minnesota's commercial sterilizers are in metropolitan Minneapolis-St. 保罗. 近842,000 Minnesotans (nearly 15 percent of the state population) live within five miles at least one of these facilities (US Census Bureau 2020).

Five commercial sterilizers with overlapping five-mile buffer zones are in 和 around Minneapolis. 这些都是 Interventional Cardiology/Boston Scientific 在枫树树林， 美敦力公司 Physiological Research Lab 和 Steris 在库恩·拉皮兹， 美敦力公司 在弗里德利，还有 Cardiac Pacemakers/Boston Scientific 在阿登山. The Steris 和 美敦力公司 facilities are in communities with higher proportions of people of color compared with the county averages.

Just over 10 miles from the Arden Hills facility is a sixth commercial sterilizer—3M—in Maplewood, outside St. 保罗. This facility has been in noncompliance with the Clean Air Act three of the last 12 quarters; it has faced two informal 和 two formal enforcement actions in the last five years, 支付近13美元,罚款5000美元. Within five miles of the 3M sterilizer, the proportion of people of color, 低收入人士, 和 people with limited English proficiency are all higher than the county average (和 the highest proportion compared with all sterilizers in Minnesota). 超过250人,000 people 和 200 schools 和 childcare centers are within five miles of this facility.