http://www.boston.com/dailynews/200/region/Decline_continues_in_use_of_po:.shtml

Decline continues in use of potentially harmful chemicals

By Trudy Tynan, Associated Press, 7/19/2001 19:08

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) Massachusetts industries are using fewer potentially harmful chemicals according to recent reports by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and an environmental group.

In its annual report this spring, the EPA found that legal emissions of toxic chemicals into the air and water dropped by 9 percent between 1998 and 1999 and by 84 percent since 1988.

And a report, based on the federal data, released Thursday by the Environmental Protection League, found the use of some chemicals that have been suspected of causing cancer, also dropped in the Bay State.

Jessica Champness, who compiled the report for the environmental group, said her calculations showed the gross amount of the chemicals dropped about 6 percent from 475 million pounds in 1994 to 447 million in 1998. She did not include the 1999 figures submitted by industry to the EPA in her report.

However, she cautioned that she had not separated out the forms or uses of the chemicals that were suspected of causing cancer from their benign applications and the report should not be read as any attempt to link the named industries with incidents of cancer.

''This isn't geared to public health. It's simply a report of how much of those chemicals were used,'' she said. ''Many things determine toxicity and there are lots of variables.''

For example, she included all the sulfuric acid the most commonly used chemical in the United States used by Massachusetts companies in compiling amounts of ''suspected carcinogens.''

Sulfuric acid is highly corrosive and capable of causing severe burns and even death, but in most its forms and uses is not considered to cause cancer and is not classified as a carcinogen by U.S. agencies.

However, research by the International Agency for Research on Cancer has found that in some instances occupational exposure to strong sulfuric acid mists may cause cancer.

''The use has gone down and that can only be a good thing,'' Champness said, crediting state and federal laws requiring industries to report the chemicals they use for making industry more aware of toxic chemicals.

Springfield leads the state's cities in total weight of chemicals listed in her report. About 98 percent of the 272 million pounds used in the city is styrene used by Nova Chemicals.

The company has sharply reduced its waste over the past decade, according to Michael Garvey, the plant's environmental specialist. However, its continued listing as one of the top users of toxic chemicals was no surprise.

''Styrene is used in making plastics and we are one of the last big plastics manufacturers left in the state,'' Garvey said.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001