Ninety percent of the 5.5 billion kilograms of toxic pollutant releases and transfers reported in North America in 2005 can be traced to just 30 substances from 15 industrial sectors across the United States, Canada and Mexico, according to the latest tri-national pollution report from the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). Taking Stock 2005 compiles data from the three pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) in North America: Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI), the United States' Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), and Mexico's Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes (RETC). In this edition, the report takes an in-depth look at the North American petroleum industry. Also new this year, the report (www.cec.org) employs air release data from the US National Emissions Inventory for criteria air contaminants-a group of pollutants associated with issues such as smog, acid rain, and respiratory effects-and for petroleum sectors not subject to reporting under the US PRTR program. The Taking Stock Online website allows users to further explore PRTR data for North America with customized reports by pollutant, facility, sector or geographic region. Taking Stock Online also provides interactive mapping of data search results using Google Maps, and features a North America-wide map layer displaying point-specific industrial pollutant data in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Using the Google Earth mapping service, the CEC's map layer displays about 35,000 North American industrial facilities that reported releases and transfers of pollutants in 2005. You can access this information at: http://www.cec.org/naatlas/prtr/. For more information, contact CEC contact: Mr. Eduardo Viadas, +1-514-350-4331, [email protected]. In English, French and Spanish.
