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Secrecy is Toxic |
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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.
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- 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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| CRTK in the United States |
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| 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.
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| How to Access Current Environmental Information |
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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.
Below is a list of tools, some better than others, to source out specific environmental information.
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| CRTK Resources (pdf 71 KB) |
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