State finds more cancer than expected near Sterigenics plant
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 to a new state report.
Released Friday by the Illinois Department of Public Health, the study is the first tally of actual cases of cancer reported in west suburban communities near the sterilization facility, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration effectively shut down last month after air quality monitors detected high concentrations of ethylene oxide in downwind residential neighborhoods.
The health department began taking a closer look at the area last summer after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated the risk of cancer in one census tract near Sterigenics is more than nine times higher than the national average, based largely on the dangers of ethylene oxide, a gas the company used in Willowbrook for more than three decades to fumigate medical equipment, pharmaceutical drugs, spices and food.
Health department researchers analyzed the Illinois State Cancer Registry and found that cases of Hodgkin’s lymphoma among women living closest to Sterigenics were nearly 90 percent higher than expected when compared with all of DuPage County and DuPage combined with four other suburban collar counties: Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will. The researchers found 19 cases when 10.2 were expected.
Read more: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-sterigenics-willowbrook-cancer-20190329-story.html