"Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration on Friday banned Sterigenics from using ethylene oxide at its Willowbrook sterilization plant, responding to an intense public outcry about toxic air pollution that left surrounding neighborhoods with some of the highest cancer risks in the nation.
Pritzker, the state’s new Democratic governor, ordered the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to step in a week after the Trump administration told residents it still didn’t have enough evidence to take action against the Oak Brook-based company, which is owned in part by a private equity fund co-founded by former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Invoking rarely used authority in state law, Illinois EPA Director John Kim prohibited Sterigenics from pumping ethylene oxide gas into massive chambers used to sterilize medical equipment, pharmaceutical drugs, spices and food."
Michael Hawthorne reports for the Chicago Tribune February 15, 2019.
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