Researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts today released the Toxic 100, an updated list of the top corporate air polluters in the United States.

"The Toxic 100 informs consumers and shareholders which large corporations release the most toxic pollutants into our air," said James K. Boyce, director of PERI's environment program. "We measure not just how many pounds of pollutants are released, but which are the most toxic and how many people are at risk."

"People have a right to know about toxic hazards to which they are exposed. Legislators need to understand the effects of pollution on their constituents.”

The Toxic 100 index is based on air releases of hundreds of chemicals from industrial facilities across the United States. The rankings take into account not only the quantity of releases, but also the relative toxicity of chemicals, nearby populations, and transport factors such as prevailing winds and height of smokestacks.

The Toxic 100 index identifies the top U.S. air polluters among corporations that appear in the “Fortune 500,” “Fortune Global 500,” “Forbes Global 2000,” and “Standard & Poor's 500” lists of the world's largest corporations. The Toxic 100's top five companies are E.I. du Pont de Nemours, Nissan Motor, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Eastman Kodak, and General Electric.

The new edition of the Toxic 100 for the first time includes foreign corporations with facilities in the United States. “This addition reveals a number of important sources of industrial toxic pollution,” said Corporate Toxics Information Project co-director Michael Ash. Three of the top ten corporations in the Toxic 100—Nisssan, Bayer Group, and Acelor Mittal—are foreign-based firms.

Users of the web-based list can view the details behind each company’s Toxic Score, including the names and locations of individual facilities owned by the corporation, the specific chemicals emitted by those facilities, their toxicities, and their contributions to the company's overall score.

A new feature of the website is a look-up tool that allows users to access detailed information on all 7,000 companies with facilities in the EPA database as well as the Toxic 100 list of top polluters.