Toxic chemical pollution from U.S. industrial facilities, mines, and factories declined by 5 percent in 2007, the government said Thursday. According to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) annual study, companies reported releasing 1.86 billion kilograms of toxic chemicals into the air, water, and onto land in 2007, down from 1.93 billion kilograms in 2006. Despite the overall decline, the EPA said more mercury, lead, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) entered the environment. Releases of those types of chemicals, which remain in the environment for long periods of time and accumulate in human and animal tissues, rose 1 percent in 2007. Michael Flynn, the assistant administrator of the EPA's information office, told the Associated Press that the 38 percent increase in mercury and 1 percent increase in lead releases came from the metal-mining industry. Mines can unleash mercury and lead naturally or produce them as byproducts. “We have this issue every year because there are natural variations in the ore deposits. It is also driven by the economy. That [mining] industry in 2007 had a fair amount of activity,” Flynn said. Releases of PCBs rose 40 percent in 2007 despite the fact that they have been banned since the late 1970s. PCBs were used as insulators in transformers, and the EPA said that the jump was likely due to disposal of old equipment.
