Suburban company hit with nearly $5M EPA penalty
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says a suburban Chicago company will pay a nearly $5 million administrative penalty for selling and distributing an unregistered pesticide.
The EPA said Thursday its agreement with Medline Industries resolves allegations the company violated federal law on nearly 1,300 occasions.
The EPA says it conducted an inspection at Medline’s Northfield headquarters and documented the distribution or sale of Micro-Kill 70 Isopropyl Wipes to hospitals, clinics, hospice centers, and other health care facilities nationwide. In February, it issued a “stop sale, use, or removal order” to Medline.
Since then, Medline has changed the product’s name to Touch Screen Cleaning Wipes and the label clearly states that it should only be used to clean dirt, grime and smudges from touch screens and energized equipment.
A spokeswoman for Medline, Stacy Rubenstein, said in a statement Thursday that there have been no reported instances of spread of disease and the company is in the process of registering the alcohol wipes with the EPA “for certain pesticidal uses.”
Nokia cuts 100 jobs from Naperville office
Officials say Nokia has laid off about 100 more employees from its suburban Chicago office, bringing the number of job cuts at the facility over the past couple of years to about 300.
The DuPage County Workforce Development director says the new layoffs at the Naperville office took effect this week and follow about 20 layoffs in July. Agency director Lisa Schvach tells the Naperville Sun that the job cuts were in departments including research and development, regional sales and corporate administration.