Toxic reporting: help or hindrance?

摘要

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) has catalogued the amounts of chemical releases to the environment from certain US industries from 1988-1995. But a few US states, most notably Massachusetts and New Jersey, have extra laws that require additional reporting on the use of chemicals. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has held up these states as examples of the environmental 'successes' of such reporting laws. But Massachusetts business disagrees. The Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act (TURA) mandates additional reporting of chemical use, burdensome planning exercises (plans must be certified by a TURA 'planner') and substantial fees (about $4.5M/a) if a company uses or manufactures chemicals at threshold amounts. Under the TURA, companies must fill in a form for each facility giving information on certain listed chemicals that are manufactured, processed, generated as a by-product, or shipped in. It also requires information on production units.