Pest Practices: EPA Uses FIFRA To Adopt Additional Operational And Workplace Controls On Ethylene Oxide

Having adopted stringent air emission controls on commercial sterilizers that use ethylene oxide (EtO), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has now adopted further controls on workplace exposure to EtO, including adopting new employee exposure limits, limiting the use of EtO in sterilizing food products and cosmetics, establishing requirements for operating commercial sterilizers that use EtO and new recordkeeping and training requirements. These controls represent the next step in EPA's campaign to control exposure to what it considers a toxic chemical.

Unlike its prior emission regulations, EPA issued these controls as an Interim Registration Review Decision (ID) under its Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) authority to regulate pesticides. Since its primary purpose is anti-bacterial, EtO has been regulated as a pesticide since 1966 and was registered under FIFRA in 1984. FIFRA gives EPA the authority to review and reregister