Michael Hawthorne – Page 18

A seal order is posted on a door at Sterigenics in suburban Willowbrook on May 29, 2019. The company hopes to reopen at least one of its two buildings there.

In a bid to reopen shuttered Willowbrook plant, Sterigenics proposes tighter controls on cancer-causing gas

June 27, 2019 at 7:23 p.m.

Sterigenics is vowing again to significantly reduce its emissions of cancer-causing ethylene oxide in west suburban Willowbrook, seeking to reopen one of its sterilization facilities amid fierce opposition from local...

Andrew Rehn of Prairie Rivers Network from Champaign looks at toxic coal ash waste seepage along the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River near a closed coal power generating plant owned by Dynegy Inc. near Collison, Illinois, on May 2, 2018. Vistra Energy, Dynegy's successor company, plans to close more Illinois coal-powered plants by year's end.

As Trump attempts to prop up the struggling coal industry, Illinois is taking another step away from its dirtiest source of electricity

June 25, 2019 at 8:36 a.m.

As President Donald Trump attempts to prop up the nation's dwindling coal industry, Illinois is taking another step away from its dirtiest source of electricity. Under a deal brokered by...

Bipartisan legislation signed into law by Pritzker requires Medline Industries in north suburban Waukegan and other sterilization facilities to prevent leaks of ethylene oxide into surrounding neighborhoods.

Pritzker signs law aimed at reducing cancer-causing ethylene oxide pollution

June 21, 2019 at 6:54 p.m.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday clamped down on ethylene oxide pollution throughout Illinois, targeting a once-obscure industry responsible for some of the highest cancer risks in the nation. Bipartisan legislation...

A man walks by the now-shuttered Sterigenics facility in suburban Willowbrook, on May 29, 2019.

Sterigenics created cancer risk 10 times higher than federal EPA standards in Willowbrook, new report says

May 31, 2019 at 10:54 a.m.

Ethylene oxide emitted by Sterigenics continued to pose high cancer risks after the company installed new pollution-control equipment last summer, according to a new federal study based in part on...

Christopher Tank Murdock, the first Wisconsin Foxconn employee, from left, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, President Donald Trump, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou and House Speaker Paul Ryan at a groundbreaking for the Foxconn plant June 28, 2018, in Mount Pleasant, Wis.

Trump EPA backs away from smog breaks for Foxconn, Indiana steel mills

May 28, 2019 at 9:20 a.m.

When the Trump administration exempted parts of the Chicago area last year from federal limits on lung-damaging smog, it delivered a huge financial break to steel mills, chemical plants and...

Plumbers, with Chicago's Department of Water Management, attach a copper service line to an existing lead service line in 2016 after it was accidentally damaged while they and others worked to replace water main lines.

State court revives class-action suit over Chicago’s lead water pipes

May 23, 2019 at 7:05 p.m.

Chicago could be forced to replace thousands of water pipes made of brain-damaging lead, a state appeals court ruled this week in a decision that draws renewed attention to widespread...

Like other plants that use ethylene oxide, the Medline Industries facility in Waukegan is near a residential area.

Waukegan company proposes new pollution controls that would dramatically cut emissions of cancer-causing gas

May 23, 2019 at 7:45 a.m.

A Waukegan company is pledging to dramatically reduce its emissions of cancer-causing ethylene oxide, even as it urges the Trump administration to reject decades of research showing the volatile gas...

Lori Burns, a volunteer with the Anthropocene Alliance, an organization that assists individuals and communities harmed by environmental abuse and climate change, in the Chatham neighborhood in Chicago on May 9, 2019. Burns says her basement has flooded six times in a decade.

Flooding in the Chicago area has been so bad in the past decade that only places ravaged by hurricanes sustain more damage

May 23, 2019 at 2:04 a.m.

A week before the maggots hatched, raw sewage gushed into Lori Burns' basement for the sixth time in a decade. Her brick bungalow in the Chatham neighborhood was among thousands...

Cyclists ride past a Sterigenics facility at 7775 S. Quincy St. on Dec. 15, 2018, in Willowbrook.

EPA’s March air tests show levels of toxic gas in Willowbrook relatively low since Sterigenics was shut down in February

May 23, 2019 at 2:01 a.m.

Levels of ethylene oxide remained relatively low last month in Willowbrook and other nearby suburbs, according to a new federal report that shows air quality improved dramatically after Gov. J.B....

Protesters rally in front of the Oak Brook headquarters of Sterigenics on Sept. 14, 2018. The state health department began taking a closer look at risks in the area around Sterigenics' plant in Willowbrook last summer.

State finds more cancer than expected near Sterigenics plant

May 23, 2019 at 1:54 a.m.

Women and girls living near Sterigenics in west suburban Willowbrook between 1995 and 2015 suffered higher than expected rates of certain cancers associated with long-term exposure to ethylene oxide, according...

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