User:Oceanflynn/sandbox/Timeline of events related to ethylene oxide

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This timeline of events related to ethylene oxide (EtO) includes events related to the uses, concerns, litigation, regulation, and legislation, involving the colorless and flammable gas with the formula. According to an April 2021 United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) report commissioned by the United States Congress, ethylene oxide is "used to make chemicals that are needed manufacture a variety of products, including antifreeze, textiles, plastics, detergents, and adhesives. It is also used to sterilize medical equipment and other items that cannot be sterilized by other methods such as steam." "Studies have found EtO to be carcinogenic at high concentrations over an extended period of time."

1859 French chemist Charles-Adolphe Wurtz first prepared ethylene oxide by treating 2-chloroethanol with potassium hydroxide as a base.

1914 From 1914 until 1937, ethylene oxide was mainly produced using the chlorohydrin process——through which ethylene chlorohydrin was "converted to ethylene oxide by reaction with calcium oxide."

1931 The chlorohydrin process was replaced by the "direct vapour-phase oxidation process, in which ethylene is oxidized to ethylene oxide with air or oxygen and a silver catalyst.

1979 Hogstedt et al. reported the results of a historical prospective mortality study which followed employees at a Swedish EtO production facility from 1960 through 1977.

30 July 1981 Ethylene Oxide Industry Council was established.

mid-1980s Both western Europe and North America introduced "new occupational exposure limits" to ethylene oxide. Levels of exposure decreased significantly in those who had the most exposure—"hospital personnel who perform sterilization operations" and facilities that produce sterilized medical items.

1991 National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) scientists published the findings of their "study of mortality in 18,254 U.S. workers exposed to ethylene oxide at 14 industrial facilities in the USA producing sterilized medical supplies and spices" in the New England Journal of Medicine. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) working group investigating ethylene oxide reported in 2008 that the study by the NIOSH was at that time the "most informative epidemiological investigation."

2002 Over 30 countries were producing ethylene oxide; annual production capacity was 16.3 million tonnes; and consumption globally reached "14.7 million tonnes".

2002 A working group of the International Agency for Research on Cancer—an intergovernmental agency forming part of the World Health Organization of the United Nations—which included a "25 scientists from eight countries" investigated several carcinogenic hazards to humans and classified ethylene oxide as "carcinogenic to humans".

December 2016 The National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) Office of Research and Development U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published a 228-page report that provided "scientific support and rationale for the hazard and dose-response assessment in the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) pertaining to carcinogenicity from chronic inhalation exposure to ethylene oxide (EtO)."

2021 Ethylene oxide is "used to sterilize 20 billion medical devices annually in the U.S." alone.