EPA mandate on ETO Loads

[lcox]

I just recieved an e-mail asking me if I had sent in a compliance notification that was due June 27 certifying that we run our ETO Sterilizer full.
Until I recieved the e-mail, I had not heard of the mandate, and have no idea where I would send such a notification.
The page I was e-mailed has only a short story attached, with a link to a confusing CDC web site, and a link to a Hospital Safety site that requires you to subscribe, join and log in before you can read the article.
Does anyone know anything about this?:confused:

[cpdguy]

Where is the letter from? the government? a vendor ?

[klammon]

I live in Indiana. Our initial notification came from hospital administration in the form of a letter from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. That letter referenced a National Standards for Hospital Ethylene Oxide Sterilizers final rule that was effective on 12/28/07. 3M Sterile U Network has a good resource- EPA National emmission Standards for Hospital EO Sterilizers. I referenced my copy on-line.

[lcox]

The original e-mail I think was from a Hospital Safety Connection site that one of the Director of Physical Rehab recieved,, he forwarded it on to the Director of Plant Services, who of course forwarded to the Director of Materials Mangagement, who forwarded it on to me asking if I had submitted the required letter. This is all they sent me:

Important ethylene oxide sterilizer deadline hits this week

In response to a new rule, if you haven’t yet notified the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilizer compliance at your hospital, the deadline to do so is just days away.



The EPA now mandates that hospitals run full loads in EtO sterilizers and log them, and facilities must file a compliance notification by June 27 certifying full loads are indeed run. Partial loads can be run if a qualified staff member (e.g., central services worker, hospital administrator, or physician) deems it medically necessary.



Subscribers to Briefings on Hospital Safety, part of the Hospital Safety Center, can read further analysis about the sterilizer changes.

[chipmoore]

Here's a link to old Discussion Forum postings on this subject. I did a search on the word Ethylene.
http://iahcsmm.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1029&highlight=Ethylene
Chip Moore
Rochester, NY
Retired nut involved

[sheper1]

This is the New EPA regulations for Hospital Sterilizers. 40 CFR Part 63 Subpart WWWWWW.
You can find the new regulations at
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/area/fr28de07b.pdf
I printed the final rule on 2/7/2008. the final rule went into effect 12/28/2007
I live in Virginia and out state regulations are stringent then the federal EPA.
There is an example of a notification the hospital needs to send to the EPA it can be found at
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/area//inocs_example.doc
You are supposed to send you initial notification of compliance status(INOCS) to the EPA headquarters (US Environmental Protection Agency Ariel Rios building 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. Washington DC 20460) your EPA regional office and to the delegated state agency which you can find at the following link.
http://www.4cleanair.org/contactUsaLevel.asp