CHARACTERIZING ENVIRONMENTAL PRESSURES ALONG THE US MEXICO BORDER - AN APPLICATION OF THE TOXICS RELEASE INVENTORY IN ENVIRONMENTRICS/

Public data bases are becoming increasingly available to environmental researchers. We discuss use of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agen cy's Toxics Release Inventory data base for research purposes in the c ontext of characterizing a geo graphical area in terms of industrial t oxic chemical emissions into the environment. We present as examples h ighlights of ongoing exploratory data summary for the U.S. side of the U.S./Mexico border area during 1988-1992 which show how different par ts of the border area have unique patterns of emissions. The TRI was t he first national industrial toxic emissions inventory, and constitute s a unique and useful resource for data on industrial toxic chemical r eleases in the United States for researchers prepared to invest in ful ly understanding its strengths and limitations.