Don’t Waste Arizona (DWAZ) found out from a concerned member about a proposed ethylene oxide medical equipment sterilization facility in Tucson. After researching and finding that the cancer rates in every community that have similar facilities are many times normal, Steve Brittle of Don’t Waste Arizona provided detailed information about the real hazards of regular emissions and problems in the event of a spill of the chemical to the Tucson City Council and Pima County Board of Supervisors. Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik pursued a solution, and got special permission from the USDOT to allow Tucson to regulate hazardous materials transportation on its city streets. With this in hand, Kozachik heroically challenged the facility owners to prove that a spill of their ethylene oxide could be handled with no injuries, or else he would block transportation of the chemical to the facility. With that, the company agreed to change the technology to irradiating the materials and withdrew its air permit. After learning about the dangers of ethylene oxide from the Tucson effort, Steve Brittle discovered that air monitoring for ethylene oxide in Phoenix air showed the highest levels anywhere in the country, but no one has an air permit to emit it. He has asked Governor Hobbs, the ADEQ, Attorney General Kris Mayes, and EPA to investigate who is using and emitting the chemical and stop.
I met Steve Brittle around the time that he was launching Don’t Waste Arizona (DWAZ). I had received a flyer on my door from a Real Estate agent claiming that my house was in a Superfund site determined by the EPA and that Motorola was responsible for extensively polluting the ground water with TCE. Being related to a lawyer who worked on the first Superfund site in the USA, Love Canal, I called him and he referred me to Steve Brittle, President of DWAZ, who was an organizer helping citizens in Superfund sites. Later, there was a settlement in the class action suit where many of those effected with cancer received some compensation. They also began the Superfund cleanup which is still ongoing today. Steve Brittle recommended that I move out of my home in the Superfund area because of the TCE fumes in the air there. I did. Check out a few of the other actions DWAZ has been involved with at http://dontwastearizona.org/