TEA wants to know about your toxic concerns. Tell us where they are and we’ll put them on the map.
We would also like to hear about businesses you think use safe alternatives to toxins. Tell us where
they are and we’ll put them on the map too. Just follow the steps
The City of Toronto’s adoption of a local Community Right To Know (CRTK) strategy and bylaw is a major recommendation left unfulfilled in Council’s Environment Plan Clean, Green and Health insurance outlined in 2000.
In 2007, following research and consultation with stakeholders, Toronto Public Health has developed a framework for an environmental reporting program that would require institutional, commercial and industrial operations in the city to report use and emissions of 25 priority chemicals. These 25 chemicals occur in the Toronto environment at levels that pose a risk to health. They include carcinogens such as cadmium, trichloroethylene and formaldehyde.
The Medical Officer of Health will report to the Board of Health on a draft reporting bylaw and implementation plan in late spring 2008. A proposed bylaw that:
a) requires reporting to the City the use and emissions of specified substances of priority health concern;
b) requires reporting for the following 25 substances:
acetaldehyde
acrolein
benzene
1,3-butadiene
cadmium
carbon tetrachloride
chloroform
chloromethane
chromium
1,4-dichlorobenzene
1,2-dichloroethane
dichloromethane
ethylene dibromide
formaldehyde
lead
particulate matter (PM) 2.5
manganese
mercury
nickel
nitrogen oxides (NOx)
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs,)
tetrachloroethylene
toluene
trichloroethylene
vinyl chloride
c) identifies reporting thresholds for the specified toxic substances;
d) identifies categories of facilities to which reporting requirements will apply;
e) enables facilities to report data using existing web-based mechanisms, such as the system used to collect data for Environment Canada’s National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI);
f) makes reported information accessible to the public, except where access is limited under applicable laws such as the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection
of Privacy Act (MFIPPA); and
g) allows reporting facilities to provide specified contextual information with the data, such
as pollution prevention activities.
Once the draft bylaw is complete and accepted by the Board of Health it will then be forwarded to City Council for their consideration and vote. Write or email (pdf 26 KB) your local councillor and Mayor Miller and demand that they support the Community Right to Know bylaw!
From the auto body shop next to your child’s school to the warehouse across from your local park, you have a right to know what toxic chemicals are used, stored and released in your community. Yet all that is reported to the public are a few releases from large polluters. Our governments allow too many polluters to hide their activities from the public. These toxic secrets hurt our communities.
Toxic chemicals are also widespread in consumer goods often found in household and personal care products.
Communities have a right to know about toxic pollutants affecting their homes, workplaces and neighbourhoods.
Toronto needs a bylaw that provides the public with access to information on location sources and health effects of toxic chemicals in their community.
Why do we need a CRTK bylaw?
What are the benefits of CRTK?
What type of businesses would report under CRTK?
CRTK in other jurisdictions.
Access current environmental information.
CRTK research links.
Why does Toronto need a Community Right to Know bylaw?
Annually, approximately 7000 tonnes of toxic chemicals are released into Toronto’s air, land and water. Go to TEA’s Toxics in Toronto map to find the 2003 releases in your neighbourhood.
At least 9 high-risk carcinogens are in our air at unhealthy levels.
Less than 3% of the over 11,000 polluters in Toronto have to report their toxic releases to the public-accessible National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI).
Over 80% of emissions to Toronto’s air are not reported to the NPRI.
Out of the possible 323 substances on the NPRI list, less than 100 substances are reported in Toronto.
No data are reported on the use and storage of substances in facilities.
What are the benefits of a bylaw?
CRTK gives the public a right to information about hazards that may affect their lives, and it puts residents on equal footing with industries that operate in their communities.
CRTK encourages industry to reduce their use of toxic chemicals since polluters must keep better track of them.
CRTK improves planning for emergency situations. When accidents or spills occur, emergency services know what they are dealing with and the community knows what the environmental and health risks are.
CRTK helps workers improve the health and safety standards of their workplace.
CRTK facilitates partnerships between industry and communities.
CRTK is an effective way to stimulate pollution prevention, inform environmental policies and support green economic development.
What type of businesses would report under the bylaw?
food and beverage manufacturing
clothing manufacturing
printing and publishing
chemical manufacturing
wood industries
chemical distribution
waste management
medical and diagnostic laboratories
automotive repair and maintenance
fuelling services
transportation support
construction
laundry services, including dry cleaning
funeral services
power generation
property management/institutional
CRTK in the United States
Other jurisdictions have adopted laws to give residents greater right to know, improve community safety and reduce the use and release of toxic chemicals. If passed in Toronto, it would set a precedent across Canada.
New York City’s Community Right to Know Law requires over 6000 polluters, from dry cleaners to chemical factories, to disclose onsite inventory of toxic substances. The law has triggered major pollution prevention efforts amongst dry cleaners using perchloroethylene, a known carcinogen.
Eugene, Oregon’s Toxics Right to Know Charter Amendment requires companies to publicly account for the fate of all toxic chemicals coming into, being used or produced, and leaving the facility. In Eugene, Forrest Paints dropped emissions by over half within two years to avoid public criticism.
Massachusetts’ Toxic Use Reduction Act and New Jersey’s Worker and Community Right to Know Act require similar public accounting of toxic materials as in Eugene, but also require facilties to develop pollution prevention plans to reduce their use and release of toxic chemicals.
The Act in Massachusetts has resulted in a 41% decrease in toxic chemical use, a 65% decrease in toxic waste, a 58% decrease in chemicals used in products and a 90% decrease in release of toxic chemicals reported over 14 years.
Companies in New Jersey that developed pollution prevention plans have achieved $66,000 in average annual savings.
How to Access Current Environmental Information
Currently, there are a number of avenues for finding environmental information at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels. However, the existing sources of information are often inconsistent, incomplete and difficult to access. All Toronto communities deserve better disclosure of information in their neighbourhoods.
The Toronto Environmental Alliance is working to reduce and eliminate the impact of toxic chemicals on our health and environment.
Toxic chemicals are substances which have the potential to cause damage to humans, animals and plants.
Studies have shown that our bodies are contaminated with chemicals believed to cause cancer as well as harm reproduction, hormonal function and fetal development.
In Toronto, as a byproduct of many industrial processes, toxic chemicals are released from facilities into air, water and land. To minimize Toronto’s toxic burden TEA is:
Advocating City Council to pass a Community Right to Know (CRTK) Bylaw to give residents access to information about toxic chemicals used, stored, and released in their neighbourhoods.
Empowering residents and communities to take action on local industrial uses and releases and engage in TEA’s CRTK campaign.
Working with the Toronto Cancer Prevention Coalition to prevent environmental and occupational exposures to carcinogens.
Building a coalition of health, environment, labour and community organizations to take a central role in calling for a CRTK bylaw in Toronto.
Link public concern to industrial uses and releases of toxic chemicals in Toronto to calls for greater action on toxic use reduction at the federal and provincial levels of government.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Get involved and find out what you can do in your neighbourhood to push for a greater right to know and local reductions in toxic chemicals. You can also reduce harmful exposure in your household and personal care products by making a safer choice.
TEA campaigns locally to find solutions to urban environmental problems. Formed in 1988, we work on issues that shape our local environment and provide an activist voice on local Toronto issues.
We work with concerned individuals, community groups, professionals and workers, encouraging the participation of local people on local issues.
TEA focuses on five major campaign areas, where we undertake research, education and action on:
1. Smog, Climate Change & Energy
2. Toxics
3. Transit
4. Waste Reduction
5. Greenbelt
TEA’s strong advocacy work has resulted in many victories, browse here (pdf 60.2 KB) for a list of recent accomplishments.
Secrecyistoxic.ca is part of TEA’s Toxics Campaign, which seeks the adoption of a precedent-setting Community Right to Know (CRTK) Bylaw in the City of Toronto. This by-law would empower residents with information about the toxic chemicals used and released in their neighbourhoods and ultimately, reduce the use and release of toxic chemicals in to our local environment.
Acknowledgements
TEA gratefully acknowledges Top Drawer Creative for its development and design of this website.
