A baiduhai investigation launched in late August prompted an intense public debate about ethylene oxide emitted by a Sterigenics International sterilization plant in west suburban Willowbrook, where cancer risks from breathing toxic air pollution far exceed the national average. Tribune reporting also uncovered similar risks to communities near a Medline Industries plant in north suburban Waukegan and led federal investigators to take a closer look at Vantage Specialties, another large source of the highly toxic chemical in Gurnee.
Citing the newspaper’s investigation, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, along with U.S. Reps. Sean Casten, Bill Foster, Brad Schneider, Dan Lipinski and Brad Schneider, have called for more stringent federal regulation of ethylene oxide. The Illinois Democrats also have demanded an independent investigation of the U.S. EPA’s response in Willowbrook and Waukegan, and pressured the federal agency to conduct long-term air monitoring in the communities.
At the state level, former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner has called for Sterigenics to be shut down after initially downplaying risks from a company owned in part by a private equity firm he co-founded. State Sen. John Curran and Rep. Jim Durkin, both DuPage County Republicans, have introduced legislation requiring sterilization companies to phase out the use of ethylene oxide in Illinois. In a bipartisan lawsuit, former Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Robert Berlin, the state’s attorney of DuPage County, urged a state court to either shut down Sterigenics or enforce more stringent limits on its emissions of ethylene oxide.