That very day, the EPA did act — although it wasn’t the U.S. EPA, the agency we had hoped to roust from slumber. No, Friday’s action came from Gov. J.B. Prizker’s Illinois EPA. As the Tribune’s Michael Hawthorne summarized: Invoking rarely used authority in state law, Illinois EPA Director John Kim prohibited Sterigenics from pumping ethylene oxide gas into massive chambers used to sterilize medical equipment, pharmaceutical drugs, spices and food. Kim's order cited a federal study that said the chemical is so toxic that even tiny concentrations routinely leaking from the company's two buildings pose a significant health risk.