Louisiana Warned of Toxic Gas Levels That Exceed EPA Safety Standards; How Can Ethylene Oxide Threaten Public Health?

A cutting-edge mobile air-testing laboratory has detected the toxic gas ethylene oxide across parts of Louisiana at levels a thousand times higher than what is considered safe.

Louisiana's Cancer Alley

At Johns Hopkins University, a team of researchers raises health concerns for people living along the "Cancer Alley" in Louisiana. These include those who reside near the chemical plants that line a stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Using high-tech air monitoring equipment, scientists discovered levels of ethylene oxide in levels that are as much as 20 times higher than previously estimated. This finding is discussed in the paper "Ethylene Oxide in Southeastern Louisiana's Petrochemical Corridor: High Spatial Resolution Mobile Monitoring during HAP-MAP."

The report comes as the US government has taken steps to lessen the exposure of people to the toxic gas. Earlier this year, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced plans to limit the use of this gas, and required over 200 plants to reduce toxic emissions.

The study also features newer technologies in obtaining better, more accurate measurements of ethylene oxide and other toxic chemicals. In the past, ethylene oxide used to be measured by gathering and storing samples of air in stainless steel containers for later laboratory analysis.

However, the storage in the canisters was found to alter the concentration of the gas. Because of this, the researchers decided to utilize an instrumentation technology that is much more sensitive and can be placed on vans and driven around in ways that are not possible with regulatory instruments.

In this study, two vans were used in gathering air samples by driving the same routes repeatedly over the course of a month. The research team used measurement tools which monitor gases in real time as they flow through a high-intensity light.

According to study author Pete DeCarlo, almost all the readings were higher than 11 parts of ethylene oxide per 1 trillion parts of air. This level is equivalent to one in 10,000 cancer risks for long-term exposure to the toxic gas. That is the upper threshold of what the EPA allows for many air toxins and carcinogens.

Ethylene oxide is just one of the pollutants emitted in the Cancer Alley. Its concentration is sometimes a thousand times higher and is measured in parts per billion instead of parts per trillion.

According to study author Keeve Nachman, people who live in Cancer Alley may be less resilient to exposure to 5his toxic gas than the rest of the general population. Considering the appropriate level of chemicals at play, it must be lower than 1 in 10,000 people.

Harmful Effects of Ethylene Oxide

Ethylene oxide is a flammable colorless gas which is used as the main ingredient in polyester and antifreeze. It is also as a pesticide and in sterilizing food, medical equipment and cosmetics.

EPA warns that long-term exposure to inhaled ethylene oxide gas is a cancer risk. In California, the Environmental Health Agency lists this chemical as a cause of cancer and reproductive toxicity in men and women.

Acute exposure to ethylene oxide may result in lung injury, nausea, diarrhea, cyanosis, respiratory irritation, headache, vomiting, and shortness of breath. Meanwhile, chronic exposure is associated with mutagenic changes, sensitization, occurrence of cancer, neurotoxicity, and reproductive effects.