What Is Ethylene Oxide?
Ethylene oxide is an organic compound with the formula C2H4O.
It is a cyclic ether and the simplest epoxide: a three-membered ring consisting of one oxygen atom and two carbon atoms.
Ethylene oxide is a colorless and flammable gas with a faintly sweet odor.
Because it is a strained ring, ethylene oxide easily participates in a number of addition reactions that result in ring-opening.
Ethylene oxide is isomeric with acetaldehyde and with vinyl alcohol. Ethylene oxide is industrially produced by oxidation of ethylene in the presence of silver catalyst.
What Is Ethylene Oxide Used For?
At room temperature, ethylene oxide is a flammable colorless gas with a sweet odor.
It is used primarily to produce other chemicals, including antifreeze. In smaller amounts, ethylene oxide is used as a pesticide and a sterilizing agent.
Is Ethylene Oxide Harmful To Human Health?
EPA has concluded that ethylene oxide is carcinogenic to humans by the inhalation route of exposure.
Evidence in humans indicates that exposure to ethylene oxide increases the risk of lymphoid cancer and, for females, breast cancer.
Why Is Ethylene Oxide Banned?However, the fumigation of foods and food storage areas with ethylene oxide has been discontinued in much of the world, including the EU which banned the use of ethylene oxide as a pesticide in 1991, due to its highly toxic nature.
What Will Happen If You Eat Food With Ethylene Oxide?
Ethylene oxide has mutagenic and carcinogenic properties and can therefore be genotoxic or carcinogenic.
As a so-called “carcinogen without threshold value”, it has not been possible to determine an intake level without health risk.
Residues of the substance in food are therefore generally deemed undesirable.