Thermogravimetric analysis was used for a comparative investigation of the thermooxidative decomposition of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymers with different vinyl acetate (VA) group contents. There were two stages of mass loss in this process. It was revealed that the apparent activation energies were correlated with the content of VA groups in the EVA copolymers. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.