The first systematic survey of toxic chemicals being emitted into the nation`s air has found hazardous materials at far higher levels and at many more locations than suspected, according to a congressional report to be released Tuesday.
The survey of scores of large chemical companies found that thousands of tons of cancer-causing agents and other hazardous materials are being released into the atmosphere from hundreds of factories. There are no uniform standards to control the emissions of most of the substances, the study`s directors said, and some of the materials are subject to no regulations.
”No government agency has ever attempted to gather this information, and the information we received is not reassuring,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), who ordered the survey as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment.
”Almost every chemical plant we received information about is releasing staggeringly high rates of hazardous chemicals, even in routine releases,” he said.
Waxman said he plans to use the results to develop legislation for national standards to control the toxic materials. He plans to release the study`s findings Tuesday at a hearing to which executives of some big chemical companies have been invited.
The impetus for the survey stemmed from disclosures that no regulations controlled the release of methyl isocyanate, or MIC, the substance that killed 2,500 people in Bhopal, India, last Dec. 3 in an accident at a Union Carbide pesticide plant.
There has been great interest in the survey because no national inventory has ever been taken of toxic chemicals emitted into the air, regulators said. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month surveyed the county in West Virginia around a Union Carbide plant similar to the Bhopal plant. It found a spectrum of toxic substances in a region where some preliminary statistics have shown higher-than-normal numbers of cancer deaths at selected sites.
Detailed questionnaires were sent in late January to 80 of the largest chemical companies, asking them to list the amounts of proven and suspected carcinogens and other hazardous materials being released into the air. A total of 67 companies responded, about 50 of them in detail.
Waxman said the survey gives only an initial indication of the chemical releases because it doesn`t cover all of the thousands of chemical-production sites.
