Last week, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized updated regulations for certain facilities that emit ethylene oxide (EtO), a colorless, cancer-causing gas. These long-awaited rules will require facilities using EtO to sterilize medical devices and some food products—known as commercial sterilizers—to significantly reduce their emissions of EtO, install additional control equipment, and improve monitoring.
Ethylene oxide is used in chemical manufacturing, as well as sterilization, due to its effectiveness at killing microbes. However, mounting evidence has shown its harms to both workers and community members. Short-term, elevated exposure by inhalation can cause respiratory irritation, nausea, blurred vision, and headaches, and long-term exposure increases people’s risk of developing certain types of cancer, including white blood cell cancers and…
Read the full article originally published at blog.ucsusa.org.