The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its Third National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals, the most extensive assessment ever made of the US population's exposure to chemicals in the environment. The July 21 study found troubling levels of toxics, including metals, carcinogens and organic toxics like insecticides, are being absorbed by people around the country.

After almost four years of silence, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released updated information on Risk Management Plans (RMPs) filed by facilities with large quantities of hazardous chemicals onsite, in order to inform communities about the risks. The agency released the information to OMB Watch after the organization sued EPA for failing to respond to its request filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). OMB Watch has posted the executive summaries of the RMPs on its Right to Know Network website.

Washington, DC -- July 12, 2005 -- The non-profit research organization OMB Watch posted updated information on the public risks posed by over 18,000 U.S. chemical facilities on its Right-to-Know Network (RTK NET) website for the first time since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) removed the Risk Management Plan (RMP) database, designed to provide communities and individuals with information on chemical facilities, from its website in October 2001. The RMP data is available at www.rtknet.org/rmp/.

Workers and environmentalists picketed outside the office of New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey on June 22 to protest proposed changes to the state's Open Public Records Act (OPRA). Harvey has proposed exempting various facilities from the public records law, including chemical plants, in the interest of homeland security. Protesters expressed concern that the new exemptions are too broad and would conceal from the public important information about toxins in their communities.