LA Weekly

The US EPA's Toxic Release Inventory for 2004 is out. It's fun if you like to play with numbers -- you can see just how bad the biggest polluters pollute, where and with what. There's a movement afoot to scale back the TRI, so enjoy it while you can. Here's a hint: Skip right to the TRI Explorer page and start playing around with locations and facilities. See what you find. This stuff is for the public, after all, so the public ought to get busy using it.

From crunching a few numbers in my part of the country (Los Angeles County), I find that the facilities reporting the most toxic releases include: Quemetco (battery recyclers); the Shell, Chevron and Exxon-Mobil refineries; and Ball Metal Beverage Containers in Torrance, which emits 100,000 pounds of the glycol ethers, mostly into the air, a known cause of anemia, respiratory disease and birth defects.

Is it possible to make cans without emitting "certain" glycol ethers? Or is that impossibly naive?

Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)