Right to Know

Although it can simply refer to public accessibility of facts from any organization, “The Right to Know” (RtK) most commonly refers to citizens’ right to information regarding the extent to which they have been/might be/are being exposed to hazardous chemicals, identifying those chemicals, and the potential hazards associated with exposure to them. This right is guaranteed in the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) of 1986—part of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA)—which continued the policy agenda of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Super-fund. EPCRA required state governments to oversee both the formation of local and statewide committees for emergency planning related to human exposure to hazardous waste materials. These provisions sought to increase the public's access to information about specific chemicals, how those chemicals are used, and what chemicals, if any, are released into the [Page 434]environment by individual facilities. EPCRA also requires individual businesses to track and report hazardous materials. Occupational Safety and Health laws also require businesses that utilize chemicals that potentially contain toxic substances to make Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) available to its employees and consumers.

A case of citizen misinformation occurred in Niagara, New York, in 1978, at the infamous Love Canal, where residents discovered that they were living close to or on a hazardous waste dump site. Part of the site's cleanup is shown here

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Prior to the passage of EPCRA, there were no clear guidelines or requirements for informing the public about potential risks associated with hazardous waste production and storage. In 1984, many thousands of people in Bhopal, India, died as a result of a release of the toxic chemical methyl isocyanate from a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide. No information had been given to those living near the facility regarding potential risks associated with this chemical, although scientists within Union Carbide had attempted to warn senior management of the possibility of such an accident. A nonfatal incident at a Union Carbide plant in West Virginia nine months later indicated that similar accidents and lack of information could occur in the United States as well. Six years earlier, residents in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara, New York, discovered they were living close to, and in some cases nearly on top of, a hazardous waste dump site. The city had knowingly bought this land on which to build a school and develop a neighborhood. The chemical company that the city purchased the land from admitted to dumping hazardous by-products on the land for years. However, the citizens who bought land and built houses in this neighborhood were not given any information about the potential hazards associated with the dump site. Residents maintain that they were exposed to dangerous chemicals that caused cancer, miscarriages, and birth defects. The RtK movement and associated legislation were an outgrowth of public demand for more information about toxic chemical exposure.

Under SARA, companies and federal facilities are also required to report information about toxic chemical releases to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which publishes the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). The TRI database is available to and searchable by the public. The website contains information on topics ranging from a list of chemicals included in the inventory to an analysis of the latest TRI. In 1990, the Pollution Prevention Act expanded the list of TRI chemicals, and the data now required to be gathered include waste management and source reduction activities.

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