 North Americans are concerned about the effect of chemicals on their health and the environment. Pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) are designed to track the quantities of chemicals that are released into the air, water or land, or that are transferred off-site for further management or disposal; they are a cornerstone in the effort to provide information to the public on the sources and handling of pollutants. Data on releases and transfers of chemicals are submitted by individual facilities. These data are then fed into a national, publicly available database. Many companies, as well as governments and communities, have used PRTR information as a basis for action to prevent and reduce chemical releases and transfers.
This report is the fifth in the annual Taking Stock series prepared by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). It analyzes the amounts of chemicals released and transferred by facilities. It draws from existing publicly available data from the US Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), the Canadian National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI) and, to a limited extent, from the Mexican Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes (RETC). It contains several new analyses, including data on transfers to recycling and from new industry sectors: electric utilities, hazardous waste treatment and solvent recovery facilities, chemical wholesalers and coal mining. These data have been added to the national databases for 1998 and, therefore, can be included in the North American perspective of Taking Stock. |
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