Reporting on 'forever chemical' hazards can be hard, but this previously obscure database of information can help

A contractor documents potential PFAS contamination in a waterway.
(Photo by Michigan DEQ, Flickr Creative Commons via SEJ)

A once obscure database can help journalists uncover previously hidden "forever chemical" hazards. "The advocacy nonprofit Environmental Working Group has found a Trump-era loophole in U.S. chemical reporting law, which allowed major companies to hide the amount of toxic PFAS they released into the environment," reports Joseph A. Davis of the Society for Environmental Journalists. What the working group did was "compare and cross-check two databases. One database was the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory and the other was the Chemical Data Reporting database. The CDR's data collection is required under the Toxic Substances Control Act ...  as is the TRI."

"Under the Toxic Substances Control Act, companies are required to report to the EPA every four years about chemicals they use in commerce or import," Davis explains. "The field covers more chemicals than TRI, essentially all chemicals in commerce, namely those included on the TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory. This list now includes more than 86,000 chemicals."

The CDR's original purpose was to "help the EPA manage the regulation of chemicals under TSCA, rather than to inform the public about exposure. It is meant to be comprehensive, but there are exemptions for certain substances and companies below a certain size. And companies are only required to report if they handle more than a certain amount," Davis reports. "The database is, however, publicly available and downloadable online. It is not, however, easily searchable online. Here's the access point for downloading data files."

The EPA maintains a superfund priorities map.

Other environmental reporting sources include the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services. Its website has multiple resources, including a "Toxic Substance Portal" and "Toxicological Profiles." The agency's work includes: "Investigating emerging environmental health threats; conducting research on the health impacts of hazardous waste sites; and building capabilities of and providing actionable guidance to state and local health partners."

The Environmental Protection Agency has a "superfund" map, which is useful for hazard site background and discovering where your community might be as far as EPA priorities go. The listing also provides site listing narratives, progress profiles and Federal Register Notices.