Dupage Policy Journal

Illinois state Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Elmhurst) recently traveled to Chicago to deliver the same message she’s been hammering home in Springfield.

Mazzochi appeared before the Illinois House Energy & Environment Committee for a hearing on ethylene oxide emissions, where she again slammed the Illinois Environment Protection Agency (EPA) over its handling of the Sterigenics plant in Willowbrook.

“To date, the Illinois EPA has failed to use the tools we gave them in the Matt Haller Act,” Mazzochi said in a press release. “They refused to defend the merits of a February Seal Order in court. They failed to address legislators’ and residents’ concerns involving the Sterigenics building permit, including my own. They have not yet started the statewide survey of the state’s ethylene oxide background levels."

Under pressure from activists and lawmakers like Mazzochi, Sterigenics recently announced it was ending operations in Willowbrook.

After more than a year of nonstop scrutiny from Mazzochi and other activists over the way the medical-equipment sterilization facility conducted oversight, the long-troubled company recently announced it was ending operations in Willowbrook and planned to move to other locations. But Mazzochi, an attorney and chemist by trade, is demanding even more accountability.

“There is still much that we don’t know, and that we need to know, to drive solid policy,” Mazzochi said in the release. “I will continue to pursue this information to ensure that our residents both locally and throughout the state are kept protected and safe.”

Mazzochi also challenged industry experts to be more forthcoming on the relative-risk ratio of ethylene oxide and other proposed sterilizing agents for various products.

“We need more action, less evasion,” she said.

A member of the House Environment Committee, Mazzochi is still in her first-term in Springfield. Her 47th District includes all or parts of Elmhurst, Oak Brook, Oakbrook Terrace, Western Springs, Clarendon Hills, Hinsdale, Westmont and Downers Grove.