When you first opened this website, you learned that we are researching hazardous waste. Naturally, the term “hazardous” may have made you feel uneasy and had you wondering how these materials can affect you, your family, and/or the environment. Here, we track materials based on the threat they pose to those groups. The data for the following map comes from the EPA's Chemical Hazard Information Profiles (CHIP). Materials we considered for the map on the left are
cancer-causingA substance that can cause cancer by distruping cellular processes
, environmentally degrading materials, and workplace hazards, which are listed on the Toxic Release Inventory"A resource for learning about toxic chemical releases and pollution prevention activities reported by industrial and federal facilities. TRI data support informed decision-making by communities, government agencies, companies, and others."-EPA
list as such. For carcinogens, we also consider placement on the National Toxicology Program list as a known or "reasonably anticipated" carcinogenCancer-causing substances
. Hovering over a site on the top map reveals percentages per site. Percentages were calculated as a proportion of import shipments that contained a toxic. Note: this map only shows solid hazardous waste, which includes waste mercury. Please also note that other wastes from our dataset may belong to these categories, but we were only able to classify them based on the descriptions provided on the manifest. For example, spelling errors on the manifest, translated over to our data, affect the results.
