The EPA is moving farther and farther away from producing science-driven outcomes. Its final rule for regulating ethylene oxide emissions from commercial sterilizers demonstrates how EPA is ignoring best scientific practices in its quest to advance the Administration’s dual agenda of “cancer moonshot” and environmental justice.
ethylene oxide
For many complex medical devices such as endoscopes, sterilizing with ethylene oxide is the only method that does the job without damaging the device during the process. Approximately 50% of all sterile medical devices in the U.S. make use of ethylene oxide. The EPA’s ethylene oxide risk assessment demonstrates what happens when faulty data and bad modeling is used as the basis of regulatory policy.