Toxic Release Inventory From The Experts

Roger P. Malckel, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Purdue University:

"Instead of publishing emissions on a company-by-company, facility-by-facility basis, the inventory should evaluate each emitted substance on the basis of factors such as the toxicity, potential exposure characteristics, chemical and biological degradability, magnitude and type of release, population densities in the area, and overall environmental characteristics of the area such as wind direction, rainfall and air moisture content. . . . EPA would do well to realize that better means need to be found to make public exposure a tool for reducing the most hazardous emissions. . . ."

J. Winston Porter, Ph.D., President, Waste Policy Center:

"Because they provide only raw data, right-to-know reports [like TRI] do not reflect the positive benefits obtained under the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and other federal, state and local environmental laws. These laws are in place to ensure that electric utility releases of all kinds remain at levels that protect human health and the environment."

Dale E. Klein, Ph.D., Vice Chancellor for Special Engineering Programs, University of Texas System:

"TRI’s definition of a chemical ‘release’ is too broad, has nothing to do with health effects, and its raw numbers are used by professional and semi-professional environmental activists to scare people who live near industrial plants. . . . Yet some self-appointed guardians of the environment regard the inventory as the nation’s annual environmental report card."

George M. Gray, Ph.D., Deputy Directory, Harvard Center for Risk Analysis:

"The greatest failing of the TRI . . . is communication of useless information. TRI data . . . are reported in pounds of each chemical. These measures are often combined across chemicals and reported as total pounds of toxic chemicals released or used. This is nonsense. The chemicals on the TRI list . . . vary more than 10,0000 fold in their acute and chronic toxicity as well as toxicity to aquatic species."