Public Release of Information

Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act (EPCRA) The U.S. Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act (EPCRA) also known as the Community Right-To-Know Act or SARA, Title III provides for the collection and public release of information about the presence and release of hazardous or toxic chemicals in the nation s communities. The law requires... 

The Director-General shall consider and decide upon individual requests for the public release of information, provided that it falls within the terms of the preceding paragraph. Requests going beyond these parameters shall be referred to the Executive Council or the Conference for decision. 

All contacts between Secretariat staff members and the media shall be subject to this Policy, in particular. Part Vll of this Policy (including these procedures established for the public release of information) and the OPCW Media and Public Affairs Policy. The Director-General shall issue an administrative directive governing media policy, in accordance with these public release policy guidelines. 

Limited or non-public release of information might take place ... 

The results of clinical trials conducted under an IND have traditionally been regarded as confidential business information that FDA was prohibited from releasing to the public under the Freedom of Information Act and that the publication of which was determined solely by the drug sponsor. The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997 established a clinical trial data bank for drugs for serious or life-threatening disease and required the inclusion of information on all effectiveness trials for these drugs. As a result of widespread concern about the lack of public availability of information about all clinical trials and their results, individual companies and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America have... 

Provisions on the recording and release of information In line with general practice for enforcement regimes, Part IIA includes requirements for authorities to record information about their enforcement actions on publicly-accessible registers. 

Section 4.3 consolidates the requirements for implementing the ER plan commensurate with the hazards present. These requirements include those that address, for example, immediate corrective and mitigating actions specific actions that must be taken by the Incident Commander the use of backup persormel the use of self-contained breathing apparatus notification of the local emergency planning committee (LEPC) and the specific information that must be included in that notification when to suspend certain operations due to immediate danger to life or health (IDLH) and details regarding the release of information that must be provided to the public. 

Dissemination to immunization providers of information for parents hesitant to immunize children and public release of immunization data that help to achieve targets... 

Request for Declassification — request for a supplier to authorize the release of information of a confidential sample, e.g., for publication. 

Reporting is required to provide the public with information on the release of toxic chemicals from a facility. Facilities must report the quantities of both routine and accidental releases of listed chemicals, as well as the maximum amount of the listed chemical on-site during the calendar year and the amount contained in wastes transferred off-site. This section provides ... 

Any release of radioactive material affecting the public requires temperature above the melting point of the materials to deform the reactor core and confining structures This section lists the barriers preventing release, presents scoping calculations that illustrate the conditions and time scale of concern. Conjectures are presented as to how core melt might happen. The section concludes with information about the partial core melt that occurred at TMI-2. 

EPCRA also requires facilities to notify the appropriate state and local authorities if releases of certain chemicals occur. Facilities must also compile specific information about hazardous chemicals they have on-site and the threats posed by those substances. Some of this information must be provided to state and local authorities. More specific data must be made available upon request from those authorities or from the general public. 

Commenting ona January 5,1999 proposal, environmental groups in early April called again on EPA to lower its proposed Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reporting threshold to zero for certain chemicals. The chemicals include mercury, dioxins, and lead. Currently facilities are only required to report chemical releases if they manufacture or process at least 25,000 pounds or otherwise use 10,000 pounds annually of a fisted TRI chemical. The environmental advocates argued that any releases of chemicals considered to be persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic should be reported as a threat to public health. This abstract includes all the information contained in the original article. 

The list of toxic chemicals subject to reporting was originally derived from those designed for similar purposes by the states of Maryland and New Jersey. As such, over 300 chemicals and categories are noted. (After appropriate rule making, modifications to the list can be made by the EPA.) The inventory is designed to inform the public and government officials about routine and accidental releases of toxic chemicals to the environment. 

Other provisions of SARA basically reinforce and/or broaden the basic statutory program dealing with the releases of hazardous substances (CERCLA, Section 313). It requires owners and operators of certain facilities that manufacture, process, or otherwise use one of the listed chemicals and chemical categories to report all enviromnental releases of these chemicals annually. This information about total annual releases of chemicals from the industrial facilities can be made available to the public. 

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