Unveiling AROMA-ETO for Ethylene Oxide Monitoring
Press Releases
09th Jun 2021
San Bruno, CA – June, 9th 2021 – Entanglement Technologies announces the release of its newest product: AROMA-ETO. AROMA-ETO is delivering in-field ethylene oxide (EtO) detection limits in the low part-per-trillion range. This capability enables rapid surveys and assessments that are required by policy-makers and industrial operators to make time-sensitive decisions to reduce EtO-related health risks, including stopping leaks and releases before they can cause harm or non-compliance.
“Recent epidemiological and toxicological studies have shown that EtO is a more potent carcinogen than previously documented,” says Tony Miller, founder of Entanglement Technologies. “To address the growing concern around EtO, we are pleased to add AROMA-ETO to our fleet of cutting-edge instrumentation to bring critical data and insights to manufacturers, policy makers, and communities.”
EtO is an important part of the sterilization process that manufacturers use to keep medical devices safe. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently updated the inhalation unit risk estimate for EtO, showing that it is about 30 times more potent to adults than previously thought. Modeling results from the 2014 National Air Toxics Assessment indicate an increased potential cancer risk from long-term inhalation exposure to EtO for several census tracts across the US, making the chemical a regional driver of cancer risk (U.S. EPA 2018).
AROMA-ETO is the latest in a suite of instruments developed by Entanglement Technologies using thermal desorption cavity ringdown spectroscopy. The AROMA platform provides GC-MS quality data acquisition with the stability, functionality, and ease-of-use of CRDS systems. The platform is used in the field and lab by customers such as the City of Houston, University of Kentucky, GSI, EPA regional labs, and many more.
AROMA-ETO enables in-field, mobile, and long-term unattended monitoring initiatives by both technical and non-technical personnel. The analyzer facilitates the acquisition of high-quality, actionable data while greatly reducing or eliminating personnel requirements, maintenance, consumables costs, unplanned instrument downtime, and infrastructure build outs. The instrument can be mounted into any vehicle to create a mobile air quality monitoring unit in as little as 30 minutes, with no buildout required.
“AROMA-ETO is currently the most sensitive solution on the market for measuring EtO,” Miller says.The dual modes of operation, RapidScan and LabScan, allow for both small molecule positive identification and large molecule classification in seconds, while also providing parts-per-trillion speciated chemical analysis in minutes for volatile and semi-volatile compounds. In these operating modes, AROMA-ETO can make real-time measurements (every 5 seconds) of ethylene oxide at 1 ppbv and near real-time measurements (every 15 minutes) of ethylene oxide at less than 10 pptv.
When AROMA-ETO is deployed in a mobile platform, it can quickly assess the concentrations of EtO within facilities and communities so that any leaks and emissions can be quickly identified and fixed. It aids in rapid response after a release event, ensuring that appropriate actions can be taken quickly and providing high accuracy evaluations of actual concentrations on the ground. This data can allow for evacuation decisions or to show that a community is safe.
Onsite, the high stability and automation capabilities of AROMA-ETO facilitate sitewide employee health and safety monitoring, scrubber efficiency, stack emissions, area fugitive emissions, and fenceline monitoring with a high degree of accuracy, repeatability, and precision. AROMA-ETO combines real-time analysis with the multiple-line-of-evidence, positive compound identification required to make informed, accurate decisions when and where they must be made.
About Entanglement Technologies
Entanglement Technologies develops the world's most advanced chemical sensors, bringing real-time analysis out of the laboratory and into the field. We make the invisible world of chemicals accessible and actionable with rapid and precise sensing technology. Our goal is to design instrumentation that reduces the current limitations in the analytical instrumentation industry (frequent recalibrations, instrument downtime, operation requiring Ph.D. personnel and low automation capabilities) while improving the sensitivity, mobility, reproducibility, and throughput over traditional techniques. The result is a family of products that provides lab-quality data with functionality and flexibility for deployments and improved project planning. Contact us.