Insecticide
EtO was first registered in 1928 as an insecticide for the fumigation of spices.
In the 1940’s the US army tested EtO for its ability to disable biological warfare agents. Indeed, following the sending of mail to the White House that contained weaponised anthrax in 2001, that killed five people, all White House mail is now sterilised in an Andersen cabinet prior to opening.
Single use medical devices
In the 1950’s the widespread introduction of single use plastic medical devices lead to EtO being used increasingly in this field. So, today 70% of all single use medical devices are sterilised with EtO.
Multi-use medical devices
EtO continues to be widely used for re-sterilising multi-use devices. Here the ability of EtO to sterilise devices with little or no damage has become increasingly relevant as progressively more complex, expensive devices, such as surgery robots, are used in hospitals.
In addition, EtO is capable of sterilising long narrow lumens, making it uniquely suited to the sterilisation of flexible endoscopes.
Non-medical applications
Ethylene oxide is one of the world’s major petrochemical monomers. Tens of thousands of tonnes are used every year in the manufacture of Ethylene Glycol, which is itself used either as anti-freeze or as an intermediate in the manufacture of polyester.