Consider pollution control devices for EtO rules

Hospitals in the compliance soup of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new rule mandating only full loads run in ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilizers—unless a physician or other authority determines it medically necessary to run a partial load—may be interested in an alternative approach. Some readers have reported that the EtO regulation is onerous because their hospitals rarely have enough gear to run a full load in the sterilizer. An option may be to use an air pollution control device that filters EtO waste gas, as outlined by the EPA in a brochure about the regulation at www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/area/sterilizersb.pdf.