Target on Toxics -- Ten Steps To A Safer Community *

Reducing the generation and release of toxic chemicals is the solution to toxic pollution.  Reducing or eliminating the use of toxics, substituting safer chemicals, making industrial processes cleaner and more efficient, and improving industrial housekeeping are good for the environment and good for industrial efficiency.

Can you help to bring about such change?  Yes!  Right-to-know laws help citizens be heard.  For years, toxic pollution was business's secret, but community right-to-know laws have helped to change that.  The Toxics Release Inventory and other requirements for businesses to disclose chemical hazards help citizens spotlight problems and propose solutions.  You can make a difference by targeting toxics in your community.

Step 1 - Learn the Facts.
Reducing toxic chemical pollution begins by gathering the facts.  Collect and study records on your community's environmental health and the pollution poisoning its air, water, and soil.  Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data are a good starting point to take the annual pulse of pollution.  Check out the facilities in your state, county, city, and zip code.  Ask the company, state, and EPA to verify information you have and to give you additional facts on pollution.

Step 2 - Paint the Picture of Toxics.
Analyze right-to-know information and other data to describe toxic chemical pollution problems in your neighborhood.  Answer some important questions, such as:  What is the problem?  How complete and accurate is the picture?  How do businesses in your community compare with similar businesses in other places?  Paint a clear, compelling picture, including gaps in public information.

Step 3 - Alert Your Friends and Neighbors. 
Seek out others who share your concern for reducing toxic chemical hazards in your community.  Find out if any other citizens and organizations are working to reduce pollution.  Strength comes from commitment, numbers, diversity, and perseverance.  Meet with others who share your concerns.  Organize a network of concerned citizens and workers to share the tasks and rewards of reducing toxic pollution in your community.  Always reach out to new people.

Step 4 - Get Some Help. 
Seek resources and expertise to help you make a stronger case for reducing toxic chemical pollution, such as scientists, lawyers, state or local technical assistance personnel, pollution prevention institutes, and university hazard reduction centers.  Local, state, and national environmental organizations often assist grassroots groups by providing technical knowledge on the problem.  Sometimes professors and graduate students at local colleges and universities will give free 'expert' advice on legal and scientific questions.

Step 5 - Publicize the Problem and a Solution. 
Get the word out on reducing toxic chemical pollution.  Pressing your case in the court of public opinion often can be more effective than doing so in a court of law.  Organize a public forum to present your case for reducing toxic hazards.  Create good visuals, such as maps, to show problems.  Determine what will resolve the problem.  Get to know local news reporters; when you are ready to announce your findings and recommendations, issue a press release, hold a press conference, invite print, radio and TV reporters, and then follow-up on their stories.

Step 6 - Confront the Problem. 
Arrange meetings with local industry sources of pollution.  Know your purpose and your goals.  Make sure your delegation knows the questions to ask and is prepared to insist on answers.  Early meetings can find new facts such as: monitoring data; prevention goals; safety features; accident records; emergency response plans; permit requirements; enforcement histories; and expansion plans.  Later meetings can focus on action requests: setting goals for reducing toxic hazards; improving pollution monitoring; and, setting specific action timelines.  This job may not be easy.  Don't be discouraged; steady pressure from concerned citizens eventually will persuade many companies to act as "good neighbors."

Step 7 - Ask Industry to "Take the Pledge." 
Citizens should ask local industry to "take the pledge" to reduce the use and release of toxic chemicals, and to reduce vulnerability zones for potential catastrophic chemical accidents in communities.  Public goals and timelines are key.  Many companies have pledged to reduce toxic chemical releases under TRI.  But are improvements, if any, the result of pollution prevention, pollution control, or "phantom reductions" (paper changes)?  Once pledged, press for follow-through on goals and timelines.

Step 8 - Size up the Local Environmental Safety Net. 
Your local industry may claim that the toxic chemical onslaught has been approved as "safe" by government agencies, or that a worst-case chemical accident "can't happen."  But who backs up these claims?  Does your community have early warning monitoring of pollution in the air, water, and soil?  Do local officials have a complete picture of toxics in the community, and an appreciation of these hazards - or do they minimize or dismiss problems to avoid "unnecessary worry and fear"?  Do standards protect children, with a wide safety margin?

Step 9 - Participate in Decisions. 
The right to participate is an essential counterpart of the right-to-know.  Monitor and participate in permit decisions that establish allowable toxic chemical pollution under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and other environmental laws.  Work to eliminate or reduce toxic hazards, and to ratchet down permit limits.  Work with local advisory boards and planning commissions - but have specific goals and an exit strategy for use if these organizations fail to take meaningful action.

Step 10 - Seek Improvements in Laws and Regulations. 
Industry may claim (often correctly) that its release of toxic chemicals is perfectly legal.  But do your state laws, local ordinances, and regulations assure your safety?  Are government agencies enforcing laws that are already on the books and using these laws to reduce chemicals in the community?  In many cases, stronger laws and regulations are needed to reduce toxic hazards and pollution.  Petition your government for "redress of toxic grievances."

* Based on the National Wildlife Federation report, "The Toxic 500," August 1990.  Adapted and revised by Paul Orum, Working Group on Community Right-to-Know; 218 D Street, SE; Washington, DC 20003.  (202) 544-9586.  [Document posted on December 2, 2003]