Ethylene Oxide: Technical Reviews and Outreach to Potentially Affected Communities
Status Report - Third Quarter 2021 Update
July - September 2021

As EPA pursues its mission to protect public health and the environment, addressing ethylene
oxide remains a major priority for the Agency. EPA's National AirToxics Assessment (NATA),
released in August 2018, identified a number of areas of the country where risks of cancer were
potentially elevated because of ethylene oxide emissions. NATA estimated risk based on
emissions from 2014, which were the most recently available at the time.

Because NATA is a screening-level analysis, additional work is needed to better understand
emissions in areas NATA identifies as potentially having elevated risk, and to identify
opportunities for early reductions at individual facilities, while EPA reviews its regulations for
industries. EPA is supporting its state air agency partners in that work.

In January 2021, EPA posted the first status report describing the technical analysis and
outreach work conducted for B. Braun Medical Inc, (Braun) located in Allentown, PA. Since
then, updates have been posted for the first and second quarters of 2021. This document
summarizes any additional work conducted in the third quarter of 2021.

Note: EPA is currently collecting emissions and emission control data from commercial
sterilizers and will use that information to craft a proposed rule revision to better address
public risks from commercial sterilizer ethylene oxide emissions.

Actions to date:

•	Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) has continued to take
the lead for Braun and has not requested EPA support at this time.

Outreach updates:

•	R3 is coordinating nationally to develop EPA-led community outreach as the revised
commercial sterilizers rule is proposed. R3 plans to reach out to PADEP and high risk
facilities as plans for the community outreach are finalized.

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