Milestones: An ounce of pollution prevention

After several public health disasters in Massachusetts, MASSPIRG led a campaign to limit hazardous chemical use, resulting in the Toxics Use Reduction Act.

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Wells contaminated, lives lost in Woburn

In December 1979, leukemia cases are spiking in Woburn, a town northwest of Boston.

Tests find that two public wells are contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and other industrial pollutants. Eventually, eight children die and others fall ill. On May 14, 1982, residents file suit against W.R. Grace, a chemical company, and Beatrice Foods, which owns the site where plaintiffs allege the contamination originated. In 1986, the companies settle — years too late for the families who lost their kids.

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Hazardous waste program director Bill Ryan releases a 1983 MASSPIRG report on the effects of toxic dumping on drinking water. Ryan was the chief architect of MASSPIRG’s cutting-edge toxics use reduction proposal, which was enacted in 1989.

A big win and a new challenge

Woburn was not alone. The number of known hazardous waste sites in Massachusetts had grown from 60 in 1983 to 118 in 1985. A MASSPIRG analysis estimated the true number was likely in the thousands.

In 1986, MASSPIRG spearheaded a campaign that won voter approval — by a record margin — of a ballot initiative to speed the investigation and cleanup of toxic sites. The vote was a win for public health and a signal that the organization had the wherewithal to put even stronger proposals on the ballot.

Since 1983, MASSPIRG’s Bill Ryan had been crafting an approach that could reduce the generation of hazardous waste: cutting the use of toxic chemicals in the first place and therefore minimizing the threat posed by spills and other exposures to the environment, workers and families like those in Woburn.

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When Gov. Michael Dukakis (right) signed the Toxics Use Reduction Act, he invited MASSPIRG’s Margie Alt, chief advocate for the bill, to speak.

The Toxics Use Reduction Act

In 1989, after the release of a series of MASSPIRG reports, combined with advocacy and grassroots action, the Toxics Use Reduction Act was ready for prime time. Legislative leaders convened a series of meetings between environmental advocates and industry representatives to hammer out a compromise.

“We knew right away what the most contentious issues were,” said Margie Alt, who represented MASSPIRG. Among those issues were proposed phase-outs of the most dangerous chemicals — provisions that MASSPIRG strongly backed, but agreed to drop in exchange for industry support.

“Although we gave up these proposals in the negotiations, by staking out this territory and having the threat of a ballot initiative in the background, we were able to compromise, yet still end up with a strong law,” said Bill Ryan.

Gov. Mike Dukakis signed the Toxics Use Reduction Act into law on July 24, 1989.

Passage represented a landmark achievement. For the first time, industries were required to publicly disclose their use of toxic chemicals and plan for future reductions.

And it worked.

In the first 10 years after the law passed, industries covered by the law reduced their use of toxics by 40% and their production of toxic waste by 58%, exceeding the law’s promise of cutting toxic waste in half. By 2019, toxic chemical use in Massachusetts had dropped from 1.2 billion pounds per year in 1990 to 0.7 billion pounds.

The law not only reduced toxic emissions; it also led to the creation of the Toxics Use Reduction Institute at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and it has been recognized as an innovative and effective model for state environmental policy. The measure also served as a model for similar proposals later adopted following PIRG campaigns in New Jersey and Oregon.

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NJPIRG’s Rob Stuart (center) meets with state Rep. Byron Baer and Gov. Tom Kean about toxics issues in New Jersey, 1986.

About this series: PIRG, Environment America and The Public Interest Network have achieved much more than we can cover on this page. You can find more milestones of our work on toxics below. You can also explore an interactive timeline featuring more of our network’s toxics milestones.

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