By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – A bill to essentially phase out ethylene oxide in Illinois has passed the House – with the minimum sixty votes needed.

The chemical is linked to illnesses and deaths around a handful of facilities in the state. Sterigenics has already closed its Willowbrook facility, and the bill’s sponsors are training their sights on a handful of others.

Rep. Dan Didech (D-Buffalo Grove) tells a story of a three-year-old Waukegan boy diagnosed with leukemia.

“They live less than one mile from a facility that has been discharging dangerous levels of ethylene oxide into the air.”

State Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) said, “We passed the bill to regulate (ethylene oxide) throughout the state,” calling the bill “overly restrictive.”

Medline, with a plant in Waukegan, says it hopes to do better when the bill’s in the Senate. A chemical industry lobbyist says not only is ethylene oxide safe, and practically irreplaceable as a sterilization agent, the bill would cost Illinois fifteen hundred jobs.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]