NIOSH offers safeguards to prevent explosions
NIOSH offers safeguards to prevent explosions
Workers may be at risk of death or serious injury from explosions if safe operating procedures are not established and followed in large-scale industrial processes using ethylene oxide gas (EtO). EtO is used to sterilize medical devices and other products.
The warning was published in a recent National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) alert.
In those processes, products are placed in bulk in closed, semitrailer-sized chambers, and EtO is injected into the chamber. Once sterilization is completed, EtO is vented at a controlled rate through closed ductwork to an emissions control device. There, to meet environmental emissions limits, the EtO is either burned off or converted to water and carbon dioxide through heat and catalytic conversion.
If EtO is inadvertently "overfed" into the emissions control device at rates or concentrations higher than the device safely can handle, concentrations of the gas may reach flammable levels. If that occurs, heat sources in the emissions control device may trigger an explosion.
To prevent overfeeding or other problems, procedures should be specified and followed for maintaining equipment, venting safely, and, in general, storing and handling EtO properly, NIOSH Director Linda Rosenstock, MD, MPH, wrote in the special safety alert.
"If ignited from overfeeding in industrial sterilization processes, EtO can explode with enough force to lift a 50,000 pound sterilization chamber 3 feet off its foundation, and blow out steel ductwork," Rosenstock said. "It is important to treat it with care."
Linked to 10 explosions
Between 1994 and 1998, EtO was associated with 10 explosions at industrial sterilization facilities and at EtO repackaging plants where EtO is transferred from large drums to small tubes or canisters for later use in small sterilization units at hospitals. In one such explosion, a worker was killed and 59 others were injured.
NIOSH prepared the alert in partnership with the Ethylene Oxide Sterilization Association and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to safety recommendations for employers and workers, the alert includes extensive discussion of potential hazards, descriptions of three case studies, and lists of resources for additional information.
(For more information on reducing the risk, go to: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ethyster.html.)
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