vol244


4 IASSIST Quarterly Winter 2000

Toxics Release Inventory - An
Environmental Database

by Mary J. Lee*

Data Background/Description
This paper describes a publicly available
database called the Toxics Release
Inventory (TRI), which provides a
valuable data source of environmental
information.  The TRI data are machine-
readable microdata at the industrial
facility level and are provided free with
unlimited access to the public.  The data
collection approach for this database is innovative because
it uses the information collection provision as the
regulatory instrument.

Following a chemical-release accident in Bhopal, India, the
U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Planning and
Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) in 1986.  Under
these provisions, manufacturing facilities with 10 or more
employees in Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes
20 through 39 are required to publicly disclose their annual
toxic release to air, water, and land as well as off-site
transfers.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) compiled these annual reports into the TRI database.
Because of the mandatory requirement of data provision
and its inclusion of a public’s right-to-know provision, this
database provides a reliable source of environmental
performance information.

Since the initial data release in 1989, the number of
reporting facilities and chemicals has been increased.
Seven industrial sectors have been added to the original
reporting manufacturing industries.  These include electric
utilities, coal mining, metal mining, chemical wholesalers,
petroleum bulk plants and terminals, solvent recovery and
hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal.  New
data for 1998 were released in 2000 covering seven
industrial sectors.  There is a two-year time lag in the
release of TRI data.  For example, the most recent data
release in 2000 is for the reporting year 1998.

The TRI data have become a primary source of
environmental performance information for a broad range
of user groups.  These include social scientists,
environmentalists, government officials, investors,
consulting firms, journalists, health professionals, etc.  The
international organizations have also recently joined the
group of TRI users.

Data Dissemination/Search Engines
Data Access
Technological progress has brought
major changes in data management and
data analysis system.  The data storage
and data access are much easier due to
the faster speed of personal or mainframe
computers, larger data storage capacities
and the development of the Internet.

Accessibility and media format options for the TRI have
also changed.  The TRI data are currently available on
floppy diskette, CD-ROM, or through the Internet.

The floppy diskettes contain the most frequently used data
elements including each facility’s identification numbers,
county, city, state, zip code, SIC code, parent company
name, chemical name and chemical registry number, total
releases to the air, water, land, underground injection and
off-site transfers.  They also include the longitude and
latitude of the facility and Federal Information Processing
Standards (FIPS) code.  The CD-ROM edition is comprised
of two CDs.  Disc one has the TRI data for 1987-1990.
Disc two contains data for 1991-1996.  The basic features
of the CD-ROM include: user guide, combining searches
using Boolean operators, displaying records, exporting
records in several formats, creating custom reports and
calculating the data using KASTAT.  The TRI data on the
Internet is available for the time span of 1988-1998.

TRI Explorer
The TRI Explorer is a search engine that provides access to
the TRI data on the Internet.  The initial version of the TRI
Explorer included on- and off-site release data.  The latest
version added waste transfer and waste management data to
the original toxic release data.  This search engine allows
you to identify facilities and their chemical release.  Data
can be disseminated into release, waste transfer and waste
quality reports.  Data can be grouped according to five
criteria: facility, chemical, year or industry type and
geographic area at the county, state or national level.
Waste management reports include recycling, energy
recovery, treatment as well as off-site waste transfers.  A
trends report option is also available for the core chemicals.
Metadata on the web provides valuable information
including detailed data element descriptions.  Data
elements provide both facility identification information
and chemical-specific information.



IASSIST Quarterly Winter 2000 5

Other TRI Sites on the Internet
On-line searching for the TRI data is available using the
web sites such as Envirofacts: Data Warehouse and
Applications and the National Library of Medicine (NLM)
TOXNET System.  The Envirofacts Warehouse includes
multiple environmental databases that allow you to retrieve
environmental information from several EPA databases.
Spatial data are available using the Maps on Demand
applications.  TOXNET (Toxicology Data Network) is a
cluster of databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals,
and other related environmental or public health areas.

International Development Systems
International TRI-like System
There has been a growing global movement for information
database on toxic release. International TRI-like system is
called as Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers
(PRTRs).  International organizations started some
initiatives to implement the development of PRTRs.  The
PRTRs in the world include: Canada: National Pollutant
Release Inventory (NPRI), United Kingdom: Pollutant
Inventory (PI), Mexico: Registro de Emisiones y
Transferencia de Contaminantes (RETC), Australia:
National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) and Czech Republic:
Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR).  Among
three North American PRTRs, Canada has PRTR data
starting 1993.  Mexico collects PRTR data from industrial
facilities on a voluntary basis.  The Commission for
Environmental Cooperation (CEC), an environmental
organization created by the North American Free Trade
Association (NAFTA), compiles the data and publishes an
annual report on the North American PRTRs.

Asian countries also participated in this international
movement.  Japan hosted the most recent international
conference on PRTRs: National and Global Responsibility
in September 1998.  Indonesia developed similar public
disclosure program called Program for Pollution Control,
Evaluation and Rating (PROPER).  Indonesia’s National
Pollution Control Agency initiated this pollution control
program to evaluate the environmental performance of
Indonesian factories.  The Philippines followed Indonesia’s
footsteps.  The Philippines’ Department of Environment
and Natural Resources recently started a public disclosure
program called EcoWatch modeled on Indonesia’s
PROPER program.

International Organization PRTR Sites

The international movement on PRTRs stems from the
1992 Earth Summit, also called the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).
Several international organizations now have their own
home page for the development of PRTRs: Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
PRTR homepage, United Nations Environmental

Programme (UNEP) PRTR homepage, UNITAR PRTR
homepage and World Bank PRTR homepage.

Further Data Usability
Growing international interest in toxic release information
presents the opportunity to combine the various databases
and compare each country’s toxic releases and waste
management activities. It also provides the possibility of
developing an international toxic release database in the
future.  This would be in addition to the existing data
archives and would be beneficial both to academic
researchers and government policy makers.  Wide use of
this database will also provide industries with the incentive
to improve existing pollution abatement technology.

In addition to the unified international database, it is
suggested that a comprehensive database may be developed
using existing databases from other areas.  One such area is
public health, where human health risks could be measured
using the TRI and other health information databases.
Other health information databases include the Hazard
Information on Toxic Chemicals, Integrated Risk
Information System (IRIS), and ToxFAQs™ by the
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
(ATSDR).  Another areas are finance and economy, where
the financial effects of environmental information can be
assessed using the financial databases.  They include the
Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) database
and the Standard & Poor’s Compustat database.

Conclusion
The Toxics Release Inventory database is a valuable
resource as a database for researchers in the area of
environmental studies, health and business. In addition, it
provides policy makers and the public with a reliable
source of information on toxic emissions and serves as a
regulatory tool for the management of industrial pollutants.
In addition, the availability of TRI data along with similar
efforts in other countries provides an incentive for
cooperative efforts in international reporting and analysis
of toxic release data.

* Mary J. Lee, 945 Flanner Hall, Laboratory for Social
Research, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
46556 U.S.A. Tel (219) 631-4521 E-mail: Lee.82@nd.edu

mailto:Lee.82@nd.edu