Ethylene Oxide (EtO). Should we pass this gas?

https://projects.propublica.org/toxmap/  👈COPY/PASTE

Figure 2. Summa canister (red markers) spread in proximity of facility. 

Ethylene Oxide (1,2-Epoxyethane) is a colorless and flammable gas containing two carbons and a catalytic oxygen. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) acknowledged ethylene oxide as a probable human carcinogen back in 1985, bestowing upon it a nice Inhalation Unit Risk (IUR) of 0.0001 μg/m­­3. What this means is the amount of risk you may succumb to if one microgram of this EtO were placed in a cube measuring one meter in all its dimensions. Fast forward today and this intermediate molecule is still used for the manufacturing of major medical sterilization products -only now it has a realistic IUR grade of 0.03 μg/m­­3 (Olaguer, Robinson, et. al 2019). A section of this experimental procedure focused on monitoring, in two phases, the largest medical sterilization plant in Michigan for both known and elusive emission hotspots. Their methods: 1. To evaluate reported EtO emissions using an independent method and 2. to prove the degree of influence the Michigan plant had on ambient emissions (and not actually deriving from other factors), while also targeting areas with relatively dense communities. Their independent method consisted of 5 Summa canister samples scattered at four different locations, including a control sample placed at one side of the facility to survey collection bias. Phase II of the Summa sampling rendered the facility's contribution to high EtO ambient concentrations at a grade of 1.83 μg/m­­3 , correlating to an excess lifetime cancer risk of 1 in 100! This value was used to represent average annual emissions, and so the study conducted by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality catapulted the state of Michigan to issue a violation notice to the facility. The facility is now closed and they were forced to pay for penalties. 

  

References

Olaguer, E. P., Robinson, A., Kilmer, S., Haywood, J., & Lehner, D. (2019). Ethylene oxide exposure attribution and emissions quantification based on ambient air measurements near a sterilization facility. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(1), 42. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010042 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coral Reef Service Providers

Image
By: Luis Castillo  Image 1: A diver using an XL Catlin Seaview SVII camera allowing a panoramic 360 ° frame, allowing self navigation for virtual divers  (XL Catlin Seaview Survey, 2015). Ecosystem servicing is an analytical field of environmental science that has come a long way for habitat conservation in efforts to counter the detrimental effects of the anthropogenic era. This research calls for a comprehensive approach encompassing coral reef sustainability, specifically -the reality that social and ecological systems are symbiotic and thus: should be met with an angle that asserts both dynamics for the future existence of coral reef ecosystems. Coral reefs and its service providers, or the ecological units that comprise these ecosystem services (Woodhead et al. 2018), are minimally understood -yet the benefits of these are known to be bountiful. Solar energy dissipation, ocean water nutrient eutrophication,  fishery services, coastal protection from extreme weather e...
Read more

High amounts of atmospheric mercury pollution from artisanal gold mining are captured by amazon forests

Image
 What I found interesting within this article would be the results from burning Hg-gold amalgams. It is unknown how Hg travels across regional landscapes. The mercury was being stored and deposition in a significantly affected area of artisanal gold mining in the Peruvian amazon. The gold mining received extreme high mercury inputs and have increased levels of total mercury and methylmercury in the air canopy vegetation and soils. They noticed a minimal difference between the sites and the low hg flux while the season changed. This difference was found to have come from a higher intensity within mining and dust generation which was found during the dry season. This increased deforestation and the volume of precipitation to be low while the dry season occurs. The Hg inputs that were found in the ASGM in the Peruvian Amazon are primarily deposited to the terrestrial ecosystem. The implications that the article states is that there is a large quantities of Hg that has been stored in t...
Read more

Relative Abundance of Floating Plastic Debris and Neuston in the Eastern North Pacific Ocean

Image
Even though there are increasing research based on ocean plastic pollution over the past decade, there seems to be little that we known about our current knowledge of how floating plastic debris is accumulating in subtropical oceanic gyres and how they may harm the surface associated pelagic community that is most known as neuston. By removing the floating plastic debris from the surface, we can minimize different effects of the pollution that can occur in a neuston. The results show that the dominant species of neuston such as pteropods, isopods, heteropods, and crabs show low atmospheric attributes which can be associated with the fitness benefit such as increased surface area. The research found strategies that can help remove the floating plastic from the ocean and reducing the negative effects of the neuston population.                                        ...
Read more