BALTIMORE–Exposure
to dangerous toxic pollution from industrial facilities threatens
communities in Baltimore and across the country, according to a new
report released today by Maryland PIRG.
The report, Toxic Pollution and Health,
uses information from the federal Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) to
analyze toxic pollution linked to serious health problems such as
cancer, birth defects or neurological damage. Due to a recent EPA
action restricting the public’s right-to-know, today’s report may
provide one of the last complete pictures of toxic pollution in
Maryland.
“This
report confirms that communities across Maryland are routinely put at
risk by toxic pollution linked to serious health impacts,” said
Maryland PIRG policy advocate, Johanna Neumann. “These toxic pollutants
are the worst of the worst and pose tangible threats to public health
that must be addressed.”
In
2004, the Baltimore/Curtis Bay zip code ranked 13 th in the country for
total air releases of toxic pollutants suspected to impair the human
respiratory system. This pollution can cause a range of health problems
from lung irritation, to asthma, to bronchitis and cancer. The largest
source of this pollution came from the Brandon Shores/Wagner Complex
power plant in Baltimore City , which released more than 11,540,702
pounds of respiratory toxicants to the air.
"While
we are aware that air emissions contribute to lung disease and cancer,
this report also brings to light agents that affect our nervous
system,” said Dr. Michael Trush, a professor at the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health and Deputy Director of the Johns
Hopkins Center in Urban Environmental Health. “The incidence of
neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson disease and Alzheimers are
increasing in our population. These diseases may be caused in part by
neurotoxicants in the air we breathe and that's why it is important to
know what’s out there,” said Trush.
The
federal Toxic Release Inventory is a public right-to-know program that
requires industrial facilities to publicly disclose their toxic
releases. In 2004, EPA reported that the TRI has helped to reduce toxic
pollution by 57% nationwide since its inception in 1988. Despite this
success, the EPA recently weakened the program by authorizing
industrial facilities to withhold previously reported pollution
information.
“To address the potential health threats from toxic pollution, we need
full information about what toxics are being released, where, and in
what amounts,” said Brenda Afzal, from the University of Maryland
School of Nursing’s Environmental Health Education Center. “A reduction
in the public’s right-to-know is never a good thing. It means that
Maryland communities and the health care providers serving those
communities will be left in the dark about toxic pollution.”
Representative
Wynn recently challenged EPA’s rollbacks by introducing the Toxic
Right-to-Know Protection Act (H.R. 1055 and S. 595). This legislation
would reverse the rollbacks to restore the lost data and ensure that
communities have full and complete access to toxic pollution
information.
“We
call on the Maryland Congressional delegation to support the public’s
right to know and protect Maryland’s communities by cosponsoring this
legislation,” said Mary Rosso, a community activist and former state
delegate.
