Kodak World Headquarters Kodak Park, in Rochester, New York.

1. Eastman Kodak's Dioxin and Other Toxic Chemical Releases

High levels of dioxin and other cancer-causing chemical emissions from Eastman Kodak have polluted Rochester's air and the Great Lakes Basin for many years. Most recent Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data shows that Kodak is New York State's number one manufacturing polluter.

Monroe County, where Kodak is headquartered, ranks among the worst 20% of all counties in the U.S. in terms of an average individual's added cancer risk from hazardous pollutants.
In fact, 710,206 people in Monroe County face a cancer risk more than 100 times the goal set by the Clean Air Act.¹

Kodak's two antiquated on-site hazardous waste incinerators at their Rochester, New York plant release more dioxins and hexavalent chromium (a carcinogen and respiratory intoxicant) than all the other tested New York State hazardous waste incinerators combined.²

2. Impacts to Water

But the problem does not stop with bad air. Monroe County, a watershed for the Great Lakes, is also ranked in the worst 20% of all counties in the country for toxic chemical land and surface water releases. From 1990 to 1994, Kodak reported releasing the greatest amounts of carcinogens, persistent toxic metals, and reproductive toxins to any New York waterway: 2,764,467 pounds into the Genesee River, which drains into Lake Ontario, a drinking water source for hundreds of thousands of people.³ Kodak regularly forces Monroe County into the top 10% among US counties for air releases, water releases, total offsite transfers and total production related waste.⁴

3. Cancer Takes its Toll on Women and Children

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, their decades of polluting may be taking a profound toll. According to the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, Monroe County is in the highest 10% for mortality rates for 13 different cancers including breast, larynx, and ovarian.

Nine state, federal and county health investigations have investigated the area's dramatic health problems. The New York State Department of Health (DOH) found that between 1983 and 1995, 446 Monroe County children were diagnosed with cancer. The same agency found "women living near Kodak Park had approximately an 80% greater risk of developing pancreatic cancer," a debilitating, often fatal disease. (March 1995)

The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) also reported an "excess of thyroid cancers in young girls in Monroe County." (February 1998) In response to pressure by parents and CEC, ATSDR conducted an initial assessment of childhood brain and spinal chord cancer cases in Monroe County, calling for an "intensive review" of all cases occurring from 1976 to the present date and health education for affected families interested in the relationship between brain cancer and the environment. Any substantive review has yet to be made public, however.

Frustrated and angry, five Rochester families have filed a $75 million lawsuit against Kodak on behalf of their children who they say contracted central nervous system cancer due to Kodak's massive emissions.

4. Vulnerable Populations are at Risk

Twenty-one schools are located within three miles of the Kodak facility. Under the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) listed six grade schools and eight high schools as part of the population particularly sensitive to Kodak's annual fugitive releases of toxic chemicals, meaning, they are most vulnerable to one of

As in 1990, when after a chemical spill, a grade school had to be shut down for air quality testing inside classrooms because chemical contamination was found on school property. Children are highly sensitive to the effects of toxic chemicals in the environment. Proportionately they breathe in more air, eat more food and drink more water than adults. They spend more time outdoors, on the ground and are more likely to put their hands in their mouths, exposing them to potentially contaminated dust and soil. Because a child's body is still forming, these chemicals interfere with vital growth and development. Dioxin is particularly insidious because it attacks our DNA and enters the very nucleus of our cells where it alters hormone regulation and development.

Another sensitive population to Kodak's pollution is the elderly. Close to Kodak's facility is the Maplewood Nursing Home and just east of the site 1,558 people 65 years and older represent over 22% of the population. A lifetime of chemical exposure coupled with a weakened immune system can put elderly people at greater risk of suffering the adverse health effects of toxic chemicals.

Environmental justice is an issue for families living within half a mile of Kodak, where the average household income is $7,343 lower than the county average. Within a quarter mile of Kodak, residents of color make up over 20% of the population. Our Kodak campaign seeks to address the disproportionate environmental health effects on vulnerable populations in Monroe County.

5. Background Reports

A Tarnished Image

1999 - 2000 Annual Report

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