We would like to thank Environmental Defense for help in accessing their chemical information. It's a simple measure of pollution. We think people have a right to know, and telling the public what is happening increases the pressure on industry to clean up. Comparing releases can drive improvement. In the US, the public 'Toxics Release Inventory' data shamed companies into reducing their pollution levels by one half in 10 years preventing the release of over 600,000 tonnes of toxic chemicals.
Industrial operators have to obtain permits in order to operate.
Permits allow a process to be operated, subject to certain constraints which often include limits on releases of particular pollutants. Nevertheless, factories not reporting annual release data to the 'Inventory of Sources and Releases' may be causing pollution, and we think that information should be more readily available. Another possibility is that an error in the database is causing a problem. The wrong map co-ordinates might have 'moved' the factory. Please contact us if you think you spot such an error.