'Still Affecting Our Residents': Burr Ridge Takes Stand

BURR RIDGE, IL – The Burr Ridge Village Board on Monday stood against the Trump administration's effort to loosen rules for a cancer-causing pollutant.

The issue is seen as critical in the western suburbs.

Seven years ago, the Sterigenics medical sterilization plant in Willowbrook closed after being accused of emitting ethylene oxide for decades.

Area towns and residents worked together in the fight against the company.

At the board meeting, Burr Ridge Administrator Evan Walter said areas with ethylene oxide emitters have higher cancer rates.

"That's just a fact," he said. "That's a scientific study put out by the government a few years ago."

Trustee Russell Smith said he strongly favored a proposed resolution against the federal effort. He said he would attend a 62-year-old's funeral the next day in Willowbrook. The person, he said, died "riddled with cancer."

"This is still affecting our residents," Smith said.

Trustee Anita Mital added, "We all knew people who we lost because of that."

Burr Ridge trustees adopted the resolution.

A day later, the Hinsdale Village Board did the same.

At the Hinsdale board's meeting, Willowbrook Mayor Frank Trilla said the Biden administration enacted "very tight, risk-based" emission standards for ethylene oxide.

"Now they're rolling it back," he said. "It's kind of ghoulish. It's kind of scary that they would even consider this."

He referred to how Sterigenics' parent company, Sotero Health Co., settled 870 local cases related to the pollutant three years ago, paying out $408 million. The company admitted no wrongdoing.

"We lost 200 people," Trilla said.