i was surfing around tonight after i woke from an hourlong turkey-induced coma, and ran into a petition form to the EPA. they are proposing rule changes to the toxics release inventory reporting requirements for businesses handling toxic chemicals, and given the current administration i’m sure you can guess the rule changes aren’t going to strengthen safeguards for public health.
they are moving to relax the reporting requirements and this Q&A from the EPA site pretty much says it all:

Q: Who will benefit from this rule?

A:
Facilities that report low amounts of chemicals to TRI will benefit
from this rule by being allowed to use the shorter Form A, thus
reducing their reporting burden. The Form A is easier to complete than
the longer Form R because there are fewer information fields to
complete and fewer mathematical calculations to perform.

this will make it easier for companies to report less information about their handling and release of chemicals, including PBTs (persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic chemicals). you know, the ones that once they get in your system stay there. they have extended the deadline until january 13 for the public to comment on the proposed rule changes, so head over to the epa site or the other link above (which opposes the changes on the grounds of an investor’s group right-to-know)

here’s a little more on the changes:

According to OMBWatch, the EPA rule changes would: “move from the current annual reporting requirement to every other year reporting for all facilities, eliminating half of all TRI data; allow companies to release ten times as much pollution before being required to report the details of how much toxic pollution was produced and where it went; and permit facilities to withhold information on low-level production of persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs), including lead and mercury, which are dangerous even in very small quantities because they are toxic, persist in the environment, and build up in people’s bodies.”

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