Safe but Toxic: Hiding the Risks from Gas Sterilisation of Medical Plastics

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At HSS 2026, Eloïse Richard and Bruno Strasser presented ‘Safe but Toxic: Hiding the Risks from Gas Sterilisation of Medical Plastics’ as part of Plastic Amnesias I, chaired by Alice Street.

The presentation examined how plastics supported the transition from reusable to disposable medical devices during the mid-twentieth century. Industry promoted single-use products as inherently hygienic, often framing hospital infection as a failure of reusable-device sterilisation. Yet their sterility depended on ethylene oxide, a gas adapted for plastics that could not withstand conventional heat sterilisation.

Although the toxicity of ethylene oxide to workers and patients became apparent, knowledge of these risks was repeatedly made less visible. Drawing on hospital and trade journals, industry records and US government publications, Strasser and Richard explored how chemical and medical-device companies resisted regulation and helped naturalise plastics within modern healthcare.