THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 7, 1997 TAG: 9701070008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By MEREDITH RATHBONE
LENGTH: 69 lines
According to a recent report by the Public Interest Research Groups and the Environmental Working Group, Dishonorable Discharge, industries discharged more than 1.5 billion pounds of toxic chemicals into our waterways between 1990 and 1994. Here in Virginia, companies reported dumping 10.1 million pounds of toxic chemicals into local waterways, with the Gravelly Run, Blackwater River and James River topping the list.
The trouble with these figures is that they represent only the tip of the iceberg. Due to major gaps in the Community Right to Know Act, the true extent of the toxic pollution may be as much as 20 times higher. The Community Right to Know Act is our best source of information on toxic chemicals released into the environment, and it needs to be strengthened. Too often, the public lacks even the most basic information to protect families and communities from toxic pollution.
Two shortcomings of the Community Right to Know Act are major sources of toxic pollution - including incinerators, mines and utilities - are exempt from the law, and the list of chemicals covered by the law is relatively short. More than 72,000 synthetic chemicals are on the market today. Many may cause cancer, birth defects and harm to the environment. The public receives information on fewer than 5 percent of these toxics.
Moreover with the exception of Massachusetts and New Jersey, the public has almost no information on how toxic chemicals are used within a facility. These chemicals end up in the products we bring home. Workers are exposed to them in the workplace. Communities face daily risks from these chemicals as they are stored and transported through their neighborhoods. We have a right to know how industries use these chemicals.
Newly elected members of Congress will face many important health issues in the upcoming year. Expansion of the Community Right to Know Act should be one their top priorities.
The past Congress made an important commitment to the public's right to know by passing the Safe Drinking Water Act. This new law will inform citizens when local drinking-water standards fail to meet minimal federal standards. But we still have a long way to go.
In the final week of the past Congress, Reps. Frank Pallone (N.J.) and Ed Markey (Mass.) introduced H.R. 4234, the Public Right to Know and Children's Environmental Health Protection Act. This bill needs to be at the top of the legislative agenda in 1997.
The chemical industry will oppose this bill. Its multimillion-dollar ``green-washing'' campaigns to the contrary, the industry has fought right-to-know protections every step of the way. The most recent assault was an attempt to axe $1.5 million from the Environmental Protection Agency's budget for right-to-know expansion and existing programs. Fortunately, an amendment restoring this funding to the EPA won.
Why does the chemical industry oppose disclosing information to protect the public health and the environment? By its own admission, as a chemical-company executive put it, ``this mandatory disclosure has done more than all other legislation put together in getting companies to voluntarily reduce emissions.'' By making information available to the public, companies feel compelled to change their behavior and reduce pollution. In other words, the right-to-know approach works.
I urge members of Congress to make this important legislation a top priority in the next Congress. By becoming an original co-sponser of the Public Right to Know and Children's Environmental Health Protection Act, congressmen can demonstrate a genuine commitment to the public's right to know. MEMO: Meredith Rathbone is the campaign director of U.S. Public Interest
Research Group in Virginia, a nonprofit, nonpartisan consumer,
environmental and good-government watchdog group.
KEYWORDS: ANOTHER VIEW