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Ideas for Special Taking Stock Feature Analyses. Tracking releases over time of pollutants of special concern (carcinogens, developmental and reproductive toxicants, PBTs, metals) Rationale:
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Tracking releases over time of pollutants of special concern (carcinogens, developmental and reproductive toxicants, PBTs, metals) Rationale: • Over the years, the data show consistent releases of many pollutants that fall into one or more of these categories (re: TS 2005 – 2002-2005 releases of k/s carcinogens and develop/reproductive toxicants – e.g., benzene, mercury, lead and others) • Many of these pollutants are subject to reporting under all three PRTRs because they are considered to be of special concern – for instance, their reporting thresholds are lower • Among the combined hundreds of listed substances on all three lists, these groupings could be a first step towards prioritizing for decision-making relative to pollution prevention and reduction • This would not be a « trends » analysis because that is a complex task, requiring good baseline data and an understanding of what is behind the year-to-year changes.
Comparability of releases and transfers from an industrial sector common to all three countries (e.g., pulp and paper mills; metal mines) Rationale: • Many common pollutants among Canadian and US facilities (re: TS 2006 analysis • Fewer of these pollutants common to Mexican pulp and paper mills reporting (different substance lists) • For metal mines, land disposal (among other practices) for mining waste raises concerns (re: TS 2006 – surface disposal of millions of kg of lead and mercury in the mid/southwest states • New data will be available in Canada for this sector; many facilities also in Mexico • Could also look at either of these resource-intensive sectors from the lens of transnational companies operating across borders • Could analyze data reporting within one of these sectors, vs what could potentially be reported were it not for existing thresholds (a « pilot » gap analysis of PRTR coverage).
Examples of industry pollution prevention successes – and the relationship to PRTR data Rationale: • PRTR data (anecdotal reporting information) reveal that US and Canadian facilities are replacing toxic inputs to comply with European environmental legislation (e.g., REACH, ROHs) • We could conduct a survey of P2 efforts and the reasons behind them – including assessing to what extent PRTR data are used in this respect • It can be very difficult to do a trends analysis – however, many voluntary industry initiatives are multi-year and as a result, some baseline data are established in order to be able to track P2 – these could explored.