EPA Adds a Second AROMA to Monitor Ethylene Oxide in Ambient Air
06th Feb 2023
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is investing further in Entanglement Technologies AROMA-ETO, using it to monitor ethylene oxide (EtO) across the country. EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) has been using AROMA over the past couple years, and just invested in their second AROMA analyzer.
Understanding and improving the ability to measure the EtO has been a top priority for the U.S. EPA. In 2016, EtO was determined to be far more hazardous than previously thought for lifetime chronic exposure by an Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) Assessment conducted by the EPA. The 100-in-a-million excess cancer risk for a lifetime of continuous exposure to EtO is 0.02 µg/m3, or approximately 11 parts per trillion by volume (pptv).
AROMA-ETO has been deployed at multiple sites across the United States. Taking advantage of its ability to detect EtO at single digit pptv concentrations, EPA scientists have used the instrument to help improve current measurement methods and better understand ambient background concentrations of EtO. Due to previous analytical limitations (i.e. EPA Method TO-15), measuring ethylene oxide at relevant ambient concentrations has been challenging; however, this is an essential step to helping communities have a better understanding of their potential risk and also to reducing emissions to protect human health.
Entanglement Technologies’ ethylene oxide monitor, AROMA-ETO, is a high-performance thermal desorption, cavity ring-down spectroscopy (TD-CRDS) system that provides near-real time measurements of ethylene oxide at single digit part-per-trillion concentrations. AROMA-ETO can also provide analysis for other key volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including 1,3-butadiene, acrolein, methanol, and isopropanol in the same analytical method.
Contact us to learn more about the AROMA platform and follow us on Linkedin or subscribe to our newsletter for news and updates.