DuPont CR factories top list of worst US polluters

ERJ staff report (DS)

Amherst, Massachusetts -- A study by a US university has found that E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. is the worst polluter in the United States. The high rank was achieved based on emissions of chloroprene from the company's CR unit at Louisville, Kentucky, which has now closed. However, DuPont's recently-opened CR unit at Pontchartrain Louisiana is now DuPont's top polluting site.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber comes in at 20th position on the listing, with almost 80 percent of offending emissions from the company's tech centre in Akron.

Bridgestone comes in at position 51, based on emissions from its industrial rubber products factories in Aurora Colorado, Noblesville Indiana and West Valley City, Utah.

Researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts have released the Toxic 100, an updated list of the top corporate air polluters in the United States.

The Toxic 100 index is based on air releases of hundreds of chemicals from industrial facilities across the United States. The rankings take into account not only the quantity of releases, but also the relative toxicity of chemicals, nearby populations, and transport factors such as prevailing winds and height of smokestacks.

Users of the web-based list can view the details behind each company's Toxic Score, including the names and locations of individual facilities owned by the corporation, the specific chemicals emitted by those facilities, their toxicities, and their contributions to the company's overall score.

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Toxic 100 listing from PERI

Searchable listing of Toxic 100

Press release from PERI