Toxic Pollution Rose 5 Percent in 2002

WASHINGTON - The volume of toxic pollutants released into the environment in the United States rose 5 percent in 2002, the first increase since 1997, the government reported Tuesday. Those two years are the only ones to show an increase since the Environmental Protection Agency began keeping track of the billions of pounds of pollution under a 1986 law.

In 1997, the increase was 6 percent. Even with the most recent rise — a dramatic turnaround from the 13 percent decline in 2001 — environmentalists say the EPA is still letting industry underreport the amount of air pollution by 330 million pounds a year.

"It's time that the EPA and the states deal with the problem of inaccurate and flawed reporting of toxic releases," said Kelly Haragan of the Rockefeller Family Fund's Environmental Integrity Project.

Some 4.79 billion pounds were released in 2002, the latest for which figures are available, not including releases from metal mining, the EPA reported. The agency stopped including that data because of a recent court decision in an industry challenge.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=513&ncid=691&e=1&u=/ap/20040623/ap_on_go_ot/toxic_pollutants

I mean, if pollution rose 5% in 2002, and there was a 13% decline in 2001, does that mean that the amount of pollution in 2002 increased 18% from 2001?

I'm betting so, and that's scary for two reasons: because it spells disaster for our children (mercury is a common industrial pollutant, and is suspected of causing autism and dementia), and because our government is again twisting the numbers so that the idiots in the corporate media can't adequately interpret the data.