Responding to concerns raised about the use of oxygenates due to the MTBE water contamination crisis, the Renewable Fuels Association released a new study which confirms the use of fuel ethanol does not pose a threat to public health or the environment.

Prepared by Cambridge Environmental Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based environmental consulting firm, the report, Ethanol - Its Use in Gasoline: Expected Impacts and Comments of Expert Reviewers," concludes:

• Adverse health impacts are not expected and are in fact unlikely due to exposure to ethanol vapors from ethanol-blended fuels.
• Virtually all environments are capable of biodegrading ethanol, and therefore ethanol will not persist in the environment, either in surface water, groundwater or soil.
• Ethanol and its combustion by-products do not pose a threat to air quality. While burning ethanol slightly increases acetaldehyde emissions, the increase is small in comparison to the risks posed by other gasoline components like aromatics, and is offset by reductions in formaldehyde, a more dangerous pollutant. In addition, the production of peroxyacetyl nitrate emissions from ethanol is lower than those produced in the combustion of MTBE-blended fuels.