Ethylene Oxide: a Useful Sterilizer or a Secret Killer?
November 2024
By Mahathi Karthikeyan
Edited by Dannah Altiti
If you’ve ever worked at a lab, been to doctors or dentists, or anywhere near medical equipment, chances are that it has been sterilized by ethylene oxide. Since the 1950s, ethylene oxide has been the primary use for sterilization for devices that cannot be sterilized by radiation or other means. However, despite the advantages of sterilization, it can also have many negative effects on the environment and people.
Environmental Impacts
One of the main disadvantages of using ethylene oxide is its disastrous effect on the environment. When ethylene oxide is used, it enters the environment through air first, this results in exposure of portions of this chemical to the land animals that live near the facilities. This can affect the animals and cause them to have negative health effects and may shorten their lifespans. Additionally, if the environment is exposed to a large amount of ethylene oxide, it can also enter the soil due to high vapor pressure which will also negatively impact the vegetation growing there (EPA,2024). Ethylene glycol (the chemical change that ethylene oxide goes through when it is exposed to water), if used in large amounts can also negatively impact aquatic life and vegetation by entering water near ethylene oxide plants.
Health Impacts
The other main negative effect of ethylene oxide is the potential health impacts on people. A great health concern includes ethylene oxide being a carcinogen. Specifically, frequent exposure to ethylene oxide can lead to an increase in the risk of white blood cell cancers such as leukemia. Even exposure to ethylene oxide exposure or living near a plant that uses ethylene oxide could result in headache, nausea, and other related (symptoms (NIH, 2024). Due to these alarming health effects of ethylene oxide, there has been a push to create more regulations for the use of ethylene oxide.
EHS regulations
Over the last 6 months, there has been a lot more progress made by the Environmental Protection Agency on having more regulations for safely using ethylene oxide. One of the big regulations that is in place is a commitment to reducing emissions of ethylene oxide on April 9th, 2024. The EPA predicts that this regulation will lower the amount of cancer risk to people who live near the plant and other communities that use this chemical and are at risk for higher air pollutants in general (EPA 2024). Additionally, another important step by the EPA occurred on March 14, 2024. This one added Ethylene Oxide to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) which will also reduce emissions of ethylene oxide. There have also been protections added to insecticide and other sterilization equipment that people use to protect workers and other individuals who use ethylene oxide or sterilization and others who live near sterilization facilities (EPA, 2024).
Overall, Ethylene Oxide has many uses such as sterilization for medical equipment, food sterilization, manufacturing, and fumigation. However, it can have dangerous health and environmental impacts. There are still more impacts from Ethylene Oxide that must be studied, especially related to the negative impacts that may occur to the environment.
Sources:
“Health Effects.” Toxicological Profile for Ethylene Oxide., U.S. National Library of Medicine, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK589511/. Accessed 20 Oct. 2024.
EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov/hazardous-air-pollutants-ethylene-oxide/what-epa-doing-address-ethylene-oxide-eto-and-learn-more. Accessed 20 Oct. 2024.
“Our Current Understanding of Ethylene Oxide (EtO).” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov/hazardous-air-pollutants-ethylene-oxide/our-current-understanding-ethylene-oxide-eto. Accessed 20 Oct. 2024.
