EPA is forging ahead with plans to impose first-ever standards on some smaller chemical manufacturers that emit a potent cancer-causing compound, accompanied by a requirement to monitor airborne concentrations of the colorless gas around their plants.
Under a newly released draft rule, the agency would carve out a new pollution source category titled “chemical manufacturing with ethylene oxide” as part of a broader update to a sector that already includes synthetic rubber producers, pesticide makers and pharmaceutical companies.
Alongside the “fence-line monitoring” requirement, some 29 plants falling in the proposed category would have to clamp down on ethylene oxide emissions from vents and storage tanks, regularly check for leaks and strip ethylene oxide from wastewater to keep it from wafting into the atmosphere, according to a summary.
The proposal is the latest in a series of updates to hazardous air pollutant standards for various industries intended to factor in EPA’s 2016 finding that ethylene oxide (EtO) was dozens of times more carcinogenic than previously thought, with links to breast cancer and some blood cancers.
