In 2019, EPA announced a suite of actions to address emissions of ethylene oxide, an OSHA carcinogen, from some types of industrial facilities. The figure below presents the trend in releases of this chemical, as reported to TRI.

• From 2007 to 2019, releases of ethylene oxide decreased by 86.9 million pounds (-29%), driven by reductions in releases to air.
• For 2019, the increase in off-site transfers was driven by one hazardous waste management facility. For 2019, the increase in off-site transfers was driven by one hazardous waste management facility. This facility originally claimed it transferred over 30,000 pounds of ethylene oxide off site for disposal in landfills. EPA questioned this claim, and the facility indicated that the quantity transferred off site was not exclusively ethylene oxide gas, and the quantity of ethylene oxide manufactured, processed, or otherwise used in 2019 was less than the TRI threshold quantity. The facility indicated that they intend to withdraw their TRI report for ethylene oxide. As of January 4th, 2021, the facility has not done so.
• For 2018, one chemical manufacturer in Texas reported a one-time (not production-related) air release of ethylene oxide. This release drove an increase in total releases of ethylene oxide from 2017 to 2018 and drove the decrease in total releases of ethylene oxide from 2018 to 2019.

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This page was published in January 2021 and uses the 2019 TRI National Analysis dataset made public in TRI Explorer in October 2020.

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