Arizona Chemical Co. continued their trend of lower releases of toxic chemicals in Escambia County in the 2007 Toxic Release Inventory report by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The TRI is a publically available database that contains information on toxic chemical releases and waste management activities annually by certain industries as well as federal facilities. The database can be accessed at www.epa.gov/triexplorer.
Arizona Chemical Co. released 11,441 pounds of toxic chemicals in 2007, down 16 percent from the 13,696 pounds released in 2006.
The results were the lowest for the company since 2000.
Arizona Chemical Co. credits their reduction is toxic chemicals released to its recognition and awareness of its releases.
“We have focused on two things aggressively,” said Khalid Hasna, an environmental engineer at Arizona Chemical Co. in Pensacola. “First, in 2000 we went to equipment with emissions control and second we are focusing more on waste minimization.”
The company continues to release ethylbenzene, phenol and xylene. All three toxic chemicals are suspected to be toxicants that have human health hazards.
Ethylbenzene is the only recognized carcinogen, while all three chemicals are suspected to be a cardiovascular or blood toxicant, a developmental toxicant and a neurotoxicant according to Scorecard.org, a pollution information site.
Cardiovascular or blood toxicants are known to cause adverse effects on the nervous or hematopoietic (blood) systems, while developmental toxicants are known to have effects that include birth defects and biological dysfunctions, among others.
Arizona Chemical Co. was founded in 1930 and currently employs more than 1,400 people worldwide with its headquarters located in Jacksonville, Fla.
According to the company’s official website, it is the world’s largest producer of naturally derived specialty resins and pine-based chemicals for the adhesives, inks and coatings, lubricants, fuel additives, mining and oleochemicals markets.
While the manufacturing location in Pensacola, located at 411 S. Pace Blvd., released 11,441 pounds of toxic chemicals on-site, it handled a total of 11,158,167 pounds of waste, which is also on the decline in the past decade.
The company feels that is can handle such a large amount of waste with little release because of its efforts, once again.
“We have streamlined our processes to optimize efficiency,” Hasna said. “It is a combo of things, from recycling more to off-site transfers.”
Arizona Chemical Co. transferred 35,718 pounds of toxic chemicals off-site for further waste management, attempting to become a more environmentally-safe company.
“Byproducts get sent to treatment storage facilities, which are landfills, fuel blenders and waste incinerators,” Hasna said. “Fuel blenders recover liquid waste and energy and resell it as a fuel while waste incinerators are used to recycle waste to produce electricity and steam.”
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