Canada Lags US on Industrial Pollution Cuts - Report
Date: 27-Jul-06
Country: CANADA
The study, which looks at releases and transfers of industrial pollutants in North America, says Ontario, Canada's industrial heartland, is one of the top six polluters.
"If you look at all of the chemicals in Canada, there's a slower rate of decline than there is in the United States," said Bill Kennedy, executive director of the Montreal-based agency, created under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"What's worrisome is that even though we can see reductions in Canada, they're not as great and they're not happening as fast as they are in the United States."
In "Taking Stock 2003", the organization's tenth and latest edition, the CEC says that almost 3 million tonnes of chemicals were released or transferred for recycling or treatment by 23,816 facilities in North America that year.
More than half the releases were into the air: 62 percent in Canada and 53 percent in the United States.
The report is based on data collected between 1995 and 2003 from the Canadian National Pollutant Release Inventory, the US Toxics Release Inventory and voluntary information from the Mexican Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes.
Ontario is among the top six polluters -- along with Texas, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania -- responsible for 38 percent of all releases and transfers on the continent. Each of them has reported more than 145,000 tonnes of toxic releases and transfers. Ontario also had the largest transfers to recycling -- of which 15 percent went to the US
Overall, Canada had an increase in total releases and transfers of 6 percent while the United States had a decrease of 17 percent. For the years 1998 to 2003, Canadian companies had a decrease of 10 percent in air releases while US industries had a decrease of 19 percent.
While the report shows a continuing trend that emissions are being reduced in North America, Kennedy says it's not all good news.
"This is not every cloud has a silver lining, it's every silver lining has a cloud," he said.
"The cloud is that even though these reductions are happening, there is still a very large amount of particularly the bad chemicals -- such as the carcinogens like lead or benzine, or the developmental toxins like mercury -- that we're particularly worried about."
"These developmental toxins for example can have a very detrimental effect on children's health," Kennedy said.
Although data from Mexico has been voluntary, next year's "Taking Stock" edition will feature information from the country's new Pollutant Release and Transfer Register, which lists 104 chemicals that must be reported by industry.