Activities Update Please Click on highlighted text for full content of article. Air Toxic Rule Delayed As a precautionary step, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is delaying, for one year, the air toxic rule that takes effect this December for commercial sterilization and fumigation facilities using one ton or more of ethylene oxide.
Ethylene oxide is used to sterilize medical and other equipment.
The reason for the delay is to make sure that pollution-control technology used to reduce emissions of the chemical is in no way contributing to explosions that have taken place over the last few months at several facilities. EPA will be working with the industry to try to determine the actual cause of the explosions. EPA has already notified industry representatives of this action. Fish Advisory Data Released On July 23, EPA released its 1996 summary of state-issued fish advisories. The number of U.S. waterbodies under fish-consumption warnings increased by 26 percent over 1995, largely as a result of better monitoring and reporting by states.