Corporate Toxics Information Project>>Ohio Toxic Twelve

August 2005
PRESS RELEASE

'Ohio's Toxic Twelve' Identifies Top Air Polluters in State

A new list of the 12 corporations whose toxic air pollution is rated by the US Environmental Protection Agency as posing the greatest risks to human health in Ohio has been released by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Topping the list is Eramet Manganese, owner of a metal-processing facility near Marietta. Next are Oasis Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, and Goodyear Tire & Rubber.

The rankings are based on releases of more than 400 toxic chemicals from industrial facilities in the year 2002. They take into account the quantity of emissions, the toxicity of different chemicals, their dispersion in the air, and the number of people exposed.

“In making this information available, we are building on the achievements of the right-to-know movement,” explains James K. Boyce, director of PERI's environment program. “Our goal is to engender public participation in environmental decision-making, and to help residents translate the right to know into the right to clean air.”

The emissions data come from the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). This database was established by Congressional “right-to-know” legislation after the 1984 chemical disaster in Bhopal, India, at a plant owned by the now-defunct Union Carbide Corporation. The TRI data include both deliberate and accidental releases of toxic chemicals.

Raw TRI data are widely used in press accounts to identify “top polluters.” But prior rankings have considered only the total pounds of chemicals released, without taking into account differences in toxicity and the fate and transport of the chemicals in the environment. The EPA's Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) add this information.

Some chemicals are far more hazardous than others. In the EPA's RSEI estimates, a single pound of the manganese compounds released at Eramet's Marietta facility, for example, is as hazardous as 400 pounds of hydrochloric acid, a major component of emissions from the state's electric utilities.

An earlier version of the Ohio rankings, based only on the quantity and toxicity of air emissions, was released by PERI in October 2004. The new version incorporates new EPA data on the dispersion of chemicals and resulting human exposures. While Eramet topped the earlier list as well, the rankings for a number of firms change with inclusion of this additional information. For example, Oasis Corporation, a Columbus-based manufacturer of water coolers, moves up to the number two spot having placed twelfth in the earlier version.

Adding all facilities statewide, Ohio ranked first among the 50 states in toxic air pollution in 2002.

The Institute's rankings include all facilities owned by the same corporation, to provide a picture of overall corporate performance. Many corporations on the list own multiple facilities in the state. Eramet is an exception, with only the Marietta facility, yet it ranks first by virtue that plant's emissions. Rounding out Ohio 's top 12 polluters are AK Steel Corporation, Amsted Industries, Delphi Automotive Systems, Renco Group, Buckeye Holdings, Crane Plastics, and Cognis Corporation.

The Ohio Toxic Twelve is available here on the worldwide web.