From <www.commondreams.org>

PRESS RELEASE
JANUARY 13, 2006
CONTACT: Environmental Working Group
EWG Public Affairs, (202) 667-6982

Study Hits EPA Plan To Censor Community Pollution Reports
Federal Tracking System Already Misses Persistent, Toxic Chemicals That
Accumulate In Wildlife and People

WASHINGTON - January 13 - It is the category of industrial chemicals that,
by consensus, scientists and government regulators the world over worry most
about: substances that persist in the environment, accumulate in wildlife
and people, and pose worrisome health risk for decades. A dozen of the most
notorious members of this class of pollutants, including DDT, PCBs and
Dioxins, are the subject of an international treaty signed by 151 nations to
date, including the Bush Administration in May, 2001.

A new Environmental Working Group (EWG) investigation of more than a million
government and industry chemical test results shows that while the United
States' premier pollution reporting system, the Toxic Release Inventory
(TRI), makes a priority of monitoring 20 "persistent bioaccumulative toxins"
from industrial sources, it tracks at least another ten such "PBTs"
inadequately--or not at all. Eight of them are considered high production
industrial chemicals by the Agency's own criteria, and are used and released
to the environment in at least 35 states.

One of the 10 chemicals EWG identified in the study, di(2-ethylhexyl)
phthalate (DEHP), was found in more than 95 percent of 2,800 people tested
by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2001 and 2002. Another,
anthracene, was found in five out of ten fetal cord blood samples obtained
by the Red Cross from US hospitals in 2004. Five of the ten PBTs identified
in the analysis have been found in US tap water.

The study's finding that EPA should be tracking a wider array of these
persistent, bioaccumulating substances comes as the Bush Administration is
proposing to do just the opposite. A pending EPA plan, subject to public
comment until January 13, would sharply curtail a citizens' Œright to know'
critical information about pollutants in their communities.

EPA's proposed rollback of the TRI would terminate reporting of all
pollution and disposal information for 228,000 pounds of five PBTs
identified by EWG at 123 facilities in 35 states. Ohio would be hardest hit,
losing data on 22,000 pounds of hazardous pollutants at 14 facilities.
"The persistent, toxic chemicals we identified in this study are important,
heavily used industrial substances, some of which are produced in quantities
up to 500 million pounds a year," said Richard Wiles, EWG's senior vice
president. "At the very least, Americans have a right to know if companies
are releasing these pollutants into their communities. In fact, we should
have begun tracking these pollutants years ago. Instead of curbing reports
on the most worrisome pollutants to please industry, the Bush Administration
should be expanding the tracking system to inform and protect the public."

EWG's analysis is available at http://www.ewg.org/reports/cheminventory.
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