Tracking pollution
November 10, 2009
"Transparency is a vital tool for improving our environment," said European Union Environment Commissioner Stravros Dimas, explaining the launch of the online register that documents what industrial centers across Europe spew out.
The initiative takes a hands-on approach to environmental problems across the continent by allowing citizens to look up just how much pollution factories down the street are emitting.
"The opening of this register will help them to engage actively in decisions affecting the environment," Dimas said in a statement.
How it works
The European pollutant release and transfer register (E-PRTR) tracks over 91 different types of harmful substances that 24,000 industrial facilities in across Europe release into the air, water and ground. The substances listed include heavy metals, pesticides, greenhouse gases and dioxins. The register also tracks transboundary transfers of hazardous waste.
Anyone with computer access can log on to the site and review the data. Users can also do searches based on specific criteria, like the particular type of waste or the location of a facility.
In their searches, users may find, for example, that just a small number of facitilites are the greatest polluters.
The register keep tabs on about 30 percent of the European Union's nitrogen oxide (a pollutant which can cause smog) emissions and about 70 percent of its sulphur oxide (a pollutant that can cause acid rain) output.
The individual facilities annually provide the data to the appropriate authorities, who review it and pass it on to the European Commission and the European Environment Agency.
Current data on the register is available only for 2007. As of 2010, information will be updated each April.
gmb/dpa/AFP/epd
Editor: Louisa Schaefer