Protecting the Health and Safety of the Public is a Top Priority for Ethylene Oxide Producers and Users
This week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is
conducting two public hearings related to ethylene oxide as it takes public
comments on its proposed risk and technology review for the Miscellaneous
Organic Chemical Manufacturing National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air
Pollutants, known as the MON. The MON is the first rulemaking of this type to
directly regulate certain emissions of ethylene oxide.
Ethylene oxide is a versatile compound that’s used to help
make countless everyday products. We use it to make household cleaners and
personal care items, create fabrics, and manufacture raw materials into more
useful forms. A small but important use of ethylene oxide is the sterilization
of medical equipment. It’s estimated that more than 50 percent of all medical devices are
sterilized with ethylene oxide.
Protecting the health and safety of the public is a top
priority for the producers and users of ethylene oxide and our industry. Companies that make and work with ethylene
oxide are actively investing in research and cutting-edge product stewardship
technologies so that we can continue to help protect the health of our
communities. This starts with the regulations set out by EPA and state
agencies. But our members go beyond simply following regulations. We
continuously revise and improve industry’s safety practices and procedures and
are making progress in three ways:
First, our industry has invested millions of dollars in
research and development of rigorous product stewardship guidelines. Second, we
use advanced, cutting-edge technologies to track emissions and help avoid
accidents before they happen, as well as new technologies that support
long-term safety. Third, we share best practices for safely producing,
shipping, and handling ethylene oxide across the industry.
As a result of these actions, industrial ethylene oxide emissions have
already fallen nationwide by over 80% since 2002, according to the 2014
National Emissions Inventory.
Additionally, one
comprehensive lifetime exposure study of workers in ethylene oxide
production facilities found no statistically significant excess cancer risk due
to ethylene oxide exposure. A
similar result was recently
found in Michigan when the state analyzed the population near a facility
that used ethylene oxide in Grand Rapids.
We believe that sound science is fundamental to properly
setting safe emissions limits. Therefore
we have requested that EPA
correct what we believe are flawed assumptions with its IRIS value for
ethylene oxide that are inconsistent with the weight of the scientific
evidence.
There has already been great progress, but
companies that make and work with ethylene oxide are not stopping there. We are
constantly using what we’ve learned to improve best practices, striving to
minimize emissions every day. We look forward to the opportunity to engage with
EPA on this important issue.
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