How Toxic Is Your Town?

By: Charles Bowen How toxic is our town? Does that sound like a lead to you? Then you're going to love a new pollution locator service from U.S. Public Interest Research Groups (PIRC). And it's nice that you'll be giving them a little love, because these guys sure aren't going to get much affection from the industrial community.

These are state-by-state U.S. PIRG reports on toxic substances released by industrial operations across the nation. They summarize air and water pollution reported by industry from 1987 to 2000. Identifying significant gaps in information on health impacts of such pollution, the reports emphasize material thought to cause neurological, developmental, and reproductive problems.

Meghan Purvis, U.S. PIRG environmental health associate, notes in an online statement that toxic pollution linked to serious health effects has shifted from the traditionally industrial Northeast and Midwest to the South. In addition, a significant portion of toxic releases are concentrated in a small number of areas. In 2000, for example, 76% of air and water releases of chemicals linked to potential reproductive harm occurred in just 10 ZIP codes.

Also of interest to reporters should be the fact that few states currently track human exposures to toxic discharges or the rates of potentially related chronic diseases. Today only three states -- Massachusetts, California, and Iowa -- have high-level cancer and birth defect registries as well as systematic tracking of asthma. There is virtually no tracking of neurological conditions such as autism, and tracking of environmental exposures linked with these chronic diseases is extremely limited.

To examine this material, visit the site at http://uspirg.org/uspirg.asp?id2=8822&id3=USPIRG&, where the introductory page offers links to a half dozen state maps that provide information on toxic releases in 2000 related to cancer, dioxins, as well as neurological, reproductive, respiratory, and development effects.

To use the material, click on the down arrow beside the map collection you want and select a state from the resulting drop-down menu. The subsequent map will display that state with its county lines shown. The counties are not named on the map, so you may need to have another state map handy if you're not familiar with that region's geography. Also on the introductory page is a link to state appendices and spreadsheets in Excel format. To use it, select a state from the drop-down menu and the system will prompt you for instructions about where on your computer you want to save the data for later use.

For an overview of the U.S. PIRG report, click on the "Executive Summary" link at the top of the introductory page. Or if you'd like to view the complete study (all 597K of it) in PDF format, click on the "Download the full report" option at the top of the screen. You'll then be able to view it with Adobe's free Acrobat Reader.

Other considerations for using the U.S. PIRG site in your work:

1. The main page of the U.S. PIRG site (http://uspirg.org) probably will be of interest to your government and environmental reporters. The site has regularly updated news and alerts. Of course, this is a lobbying and advocacy group, so the material has a spin on it and ought to be viewed accordingly.

2. Note that the introductory page also offers an e-mail alert service. To use it, scroll the main page to the bottom and enter your e-mail address.

3. Need to find local quotables? The bottom of the main page also has a database of its officials around the country, searchable by state.

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