By Nancy Lapid(Reuters) – The toxic gas ethylene oxide (EtO) is detectable in southeastern Louisiana at levels a thousand times higher than what is considered safe, according to a new study.EtO emissions largely come from petrochemical manufacturing, and southeastern Louisiana has a high density of facilities that use or manufacture petrochemicals.“We expected to see ethylene oxide in this area,” said study leader Peter DeCarlo of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “But we didn’t expect the levels that we saw, and they certainly were much, much higher” than levels estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).EPA estimates were based on traditional EtO monitoring methods that involve collecting air samples and analyzing them in a lab, a method that is not precise, DeCarlo said.Because EtO concentrations change over time, the air that comes out of the collection canister in the lab is different from the air that was originally collected, he explained.In February 2023, researchers crisscrossed repeatedly through southeastern Louisiana’s industrial corridor with a cutting-edge mobile air-testing lab that could directly measure EtO levels on site.EtO is so toxic that dangerous levels for long-term exposure start at 11 parts per trillion, the researchers noted in a report published on Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.Levels in …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnBy Nancy Lapid(Reuters) – The toxic gas ethylene oxide (EtO) is detectable in southeastern Louisiana at levels a thousand times higher than what is considered safe, according to a new study.EtO emissions largely come from petrochemical manufacturing, and southeastern Louisiana has a high density of facilities that use or manufacture petrochemicals.“We expected to see ethylene oxide in this area,” said study leader Peter DeCarlo of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. “But we didn’t expect the levels that we saw, and they certainly were much, much higher” than levels estimated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).EPA estimates were based on traditional EtO monitoring methods that involve collecting air samples and analyzing them in a lab, a method that is not precise, DeCarlo said.Because EtO concentrations change over time, the air that comes out of the collection canister in the lab is different from the air that was originally collected, he explained.In February 2023, researchers crisscrossed repeatedly through southeastern Louisiana’s industrial corridor with a cutting-edge mobile air-testing lab that could directly measure EtO levels on site.EtO is so toxic that dangerous levels for long-term exposure start at 11 parts per trillion, the researchers noted in a report published on Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.Levels in …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
