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Poisoning Our Future

The Dangerous Legacy of Persistent Toxic Chemicals

November 1998

• Executive Summary
• Section I: Toxic Chemicals Threaten Public Health and the Environment
• Section II: Preventing Pollution From Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxins
• Section III: What We Do Know: An Analysis of 1996 TRI Data For Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxins
• Section IV: What We Should Know: A More Complete Picture of Releases and Major Sources of the Most Dangerous Substances
• Section V: Recommendations
• Appendices (except for C, available only in printed version of report)
  • Appendix A: Data and Methodology
  • Appendix B: State Fact Sheets (contained only in state-specific versions of report)
  • Appendix C: Fact Sheets Seven Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxins
    • Dioxin
    • Hexachlorobenzene
    • Lead
    • Mercury
    • Certain Pesticides
    • Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
    • Triazine Herbicides
  • Appendix D: Additional Analyses of 1996 TRI data
  • Appendix E: Regulatory Lists and Screening/Ranking Programs Used to Select Chemicals For Analysis

• Press release
• To order printed copies of this report
• Contact Information

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To Order Printed Copies of This Report

Copies of the report may be ordered by sending a check or money order for $20.00 to:

      U.S. PIRG
      218 D Street, S.E.
      Washington, DC 20003.

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Authors

     Allison LaPlante
     U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) Education Fund
     218 D Street, S.E.
     Washington, DC 20003
     (202) 546-9707

     Tom Natan
     The National Environmental Trust
     1200 18 St  NW, Suite 500		      
     Washington, DC 20036		      
     (202) 887-8800			      

     Rich Puchalsky
     Grassroots Connection
     P.O. Box 74220
     Los Angeles, CA 90004
     (213) 386-1990

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the following people for their help with the research and editing of this report: Anna Aurilio, Carolyn Hartmann, Jeremiah Baumann, Liz Hitchcock, and Sims Weymuller of U.S. PIRG; Jeff Wise and Robin Pressman of the National Environmental Trust; and Mark Dorfman of INFORM.

The authors would also like to thank the field staff of the State PIRGs and the National Environmental Trust for all of their hard work, and Elke Sporseen, Erin Drennan, Rick Trilsch and the staff of Public Interest GRFX for all of their assistance with the production of the report.

The State PIRGs’ Right to Know work is made possible through generous support from Pew Charitable Trusts and the Bauman Foundation. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of these supporters.

The Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) are state-based, non-profit and non-partisan research and advocacy organizations working on environmental and consumer issues. The U.S. PIRG Education Fund is the national research and public education center for the State PIRGs. It was established in 1984 by the State PIRGs to promote an agenda environmental, consumer and government reform on a national level.

The National Environmental Trust is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that conducts public education campaigns on national environmental issues.

Grassroots Connection is an environmental consulting business specializing in the analysis of environmental data.