Report profiles data on industrial releases and children’s health

The appeal is made in a report entitled Toxic Chemicals and Children’s Health in North America, which uses for the first time a recognized methodology (toxic equivalency potentials—TEPs) to describe the relative hazard of industrial chemical releases in North America.

The report focuses on the releases of carcinogens, developmental and reproductive toxicants, and suspected neurotoxicants, as reported by the national pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) of Canada and the United States in 2002. It finds that lead, mercury, PCBs, dioxins and furans, phthalates and manganese are substances of either significant or emerging concern.

“In order to adequately address the risks posed by chemical releases into our environment, we need to have good information about exposure and toxicity,” says Dr. Lynn Goldman, the principal author of the report and professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “This report attempts to go beyond a simple listing and ranking of chemical releases to actually compare them in terms of toxicity.”

Scientists at the University of California Berkeley developed the TEP approach, which is calculated by comparing the risk posed by a one-pound release of a chemical to a reference chemical (benzene for carcinogens and toluene for non-carcinogens). The model doesn’t, however, directly correlate these risks to the actual exposures that can lead to learning and behavioral changes, neurological or developmental damage in children.

To better understand these risks, the report recommends that “children’s health should be among the factors that guide the interpretation of PRTR data in order to identify priorities for emissions reduction and pollution prevention.” It suggests that national PRTR data should be used in combination with biomonitoring studies to give a more complete picture of children’s potential exposures to chemicals from mobile sources, agricultural sources (i.e., pesticide use), small sources, consumer products or natural sources.

“By increasing the amount of comparable data available on a continental basis, we hope to gain a more complete picture of the chemical releases and transfers in North America and thereby promote effective policies to protect children and the environment,” affirms Keith Chanon, program manager for PRTR at the CEC. “Working trilaterally is an important means to address current data gaps regarding the effects that chemicals may have on our children and future generations.”

Childhood data regarding socio-economic conditions, causes of death, and diseases related to environmental pollution are included in the report for all three North American countries. However, the report does not include an analysis of chemicals released or transferred in Mexico, as comparable data were not available for the 2002 reporting year. The Mexican government is expected to release shortly the first set of publicly available data collected under its new, mandatory reporting program (the Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes) for the 2004 data year.

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For more information on this report, please consult <www.cec.org> or contact Spencer Tripp at (514) 350-4331.

Backgrounder:

Toxic Chemicals and Children’s Health in North America uses toxic equivalency potentials (TEPs) to describe the relative hazard of chemical releases. The TEP is calculated by comparing the human health risk posed by the release of one pound of a chemical to the risk posed by the release of a reference chemical. The report also presents the more standard characterization, the amount by weight of chemicals released.

Key findings* for both methods include:

Carcinogens

• According to a set of matched data from the national pollutant release and transfer registers of Canada and the United States, 472,600 tonnes of carcinogens were released and transferred by industrial facilities in Canada and the United States.
• The released quantity of known carcinogens has decreased 26 percent from 1998 to 2002.
• The carcinogens released in the largest quantities to air were styrene and acetaldehyde. When TEPs are applied, carbon tetrachloride ranked #1 and lead and its compounds #2.
• States and provinces with the largest releases of carcinogens are Texas, Ohio and Indiana. Texas, Indiana and Ontario also ranked as the top three jurisdictions in North America for releases of carcinogens to air.

Recognized developmental and reproductive toxicants

• Almost half a million tonnes (482,600 tonnes) of chemicals that are recognized developmental and reproductive toxicants were released and transferred in 2002.
• Released quantities of recognized developmental and reproductive toxicants decreased by 28 percent from 1998 to 2002.
• The recognized developmental and reproductive toxicants released in the largest quantities to the air were toluene and carbon disulfide. When TEPs are applied, mercury and lead and their compounds ranked first and second, respectively.
• After accounting for TEPs, mercury and lead are by far the most significant releases to air and water from among those substances with recognized developmental and reproductive toxicity.
• States and provinces with the largest releases of recognized developmental and reproductive toxicants are Tennessee, Ontario and Texas.

Suspected developmental and reproductive toxicants

• In 2002, over 2.25 million tonnes of suspected developmental and reproductive toxicants were released and transferred. They account for more than two-thirds of the total amount of matched chemicals released and transferred in Canada and the United States (3.25 million).
• The release of all suspected developmental and reproductive toxicants decreased by seven percent from 1998 to 2002.
• The suspected development and reproductive toxicants released in the largest quantities to the air were: methanol, hydrogen fluoride, xylenes, styrene and n-hexane.

Suspected neurotoxicants

• Over 2.5 million tonnes of suspected neurotoxicants were released and transferred in 2002.
• Releases of suspected neurotoxicants decreased by 11 percent from 1998 to 2002 in Canada and the United States. Air releases fell by 27 percent.

*Note: The data are estimates of releases (both off- and on-site) and transfers off-site of chemicals as reported by facilities and should not be interpreted as levels of human exposure or environmental impact.