Has North America made progress in reducing industrial releases of chemicals in the five years from 1995 to 1999? How many tonnes of carcinogens are released to air, water and land each year, and what are the trends in these releases? Have the agreements and regulations on chemicals that deplete that ozone layer had any effect on releases of those substances? Information to help answer these questions can be drawn from pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs), which provide detailed information on the types, locations and amounts of chemicals released or transferred by facilities.
This report is intended to serve as an information source for governments, industry and communities in answering such questions and for identifying opportunities for pollution reduction. The analyses are based on 1995–1999 data from the US Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and the Canadian National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI). Results from 1999, trends over the five years from 1995–1999 and changes from 1998 to 1999 are presented here. As data become available from the currently voluntary Mexican Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes, they will be included in future reports.
This report is the sixth in the CEC’s Taking Stock series on sources and management of industrial pollutants in North America. This Sourcebook report, the Summary, past volumes of Taking Stock (as PDF files), and searchable access to the data sets used in Taking Stock analyses are all available on the CEC's Taking Stock Online web page. | 
Download document