Ethylene oxide (ETO or EO) is a colorless gas with a wide range of commercial uses, including the production of textiles, personal care items, and the disinfection of medical devices, cosmetics, and fragrances. EO sterilization is one of the most common methods of sterilizing medical devices, which is essential for preventing infections in patients undergoing surgery and other medical treatments.

More than 50% of medical devices are sterilized using ETO, and for many of them, it is the only option known to modern science.

Hundreds of thousands of medical, hospital, and laboratory processes rely on ETO to sterilize equipment and equipment to protect millions of patients from the real risk of infectious diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, and fungi. For most of these products, EO sterilization is the most effective and effective — and often the only — sterilization technique available. The gentle yet thorough nature of ETO allows the disinfection of many critical medical technologies and equipment that would otherwise be compromised by other disinfection methods and become unusable.

The following can only be sterilized by ETO:

1. Gamma rays and electron beam radiation can make plastics brittle or cause certain nonwoven materials to break down

2. Steam is high temperature and can melt plastics and/or damage products sensitive to heat and/or moisture

3. Hydrogen peroxide and gas plasma are only used for small-scale surface disinfection and should not penetrate equipment with an internal chamber or two surfaces in contact (e.g., the plunger and barrel of a syringe).

ETO has the unique ability to penetrate packaging and plastics without damaging them and effectively sterilize other product configurations that are difficult to sterilize (for example, internal pipes, products with two contact surfaces, connectors, and so on).

What materials can be used in EO process?

The sterilization process is used in the medical and pharmaceutical fields. The components sterilized with ethylene oxide are materials that cannot be sterilized by conventional methods. In other words, all heat-sensitive materials.

Some examples of these materials: packaging, plastic products, raw materials, surgical, medical and optical instruments, prosthetics, syringes… . It is very suitable for sterilization of medical instruments and drugs.

In addition to the high level of efficacy ETO provides, it is highly compatible with a variety of medical device construction materials, enabling medical device companies to manufacture many devices that would not be possible without ETO. The high level of performance and effectiveness of medical devices when sterilized using ETO is well known. If ETO cannot be used to sterilize healthcare products, there will certainly be significant and potentially catastrophic adverse public health consequences. Eliminating this sterilization technique carries a real risk of increased morbidity and mortality.

What are the advantages of ethylene oxide gas sterilization?

High efficiency as antivirals, fungicides and fungicides.

Due to the low temperature sterilization cycle, it ensures that the load will neither deform nor destroy, making it ideal for thermal sensitive materials.

Wraps, creases with high diffusivity, basically in any inaccessible area.

A process that does not alter the physical quality of the sterilized product.

One small but important use of ethylene oxide is to sterilize medical equipment, including personal protective equipment used by doctors and hospitals across the country to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.