The lack of fanfare for this stirring event gives the wrong impression about the magnitude of its importance. More than a decade of campaigns by citizen groups supported by multi-lateral agencies and media harangues was necessary to reach the point on Aug. 18, at which environmental officials could declare: Now Mexico has lived up to its international commitments, becoming the first Latin American country to achieve a mandatory Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR).

Aug. 18 is the date the authorities notified stakeholders that the essential elements of the register were compiled and on the Internet. The significance of this achievement is paramount for advocates of community right-to-know, seeing as how access to environmental data bases is a vital building block of participatory democracy in Latin America. I, for one, feel like tossing my cap in the air.

But health and environmental justice watchdogs are far from being the only stakeholders served by the realization of the new inventory. It is useful for government decision makers in policy choices. It aids scientific research. It guides factory managers in saving water, energy and other bottom-line parameters. Plus, it levels the playing field for the competition in international trade.

Just what exactly is the instrument that does all this and how does it work? See for yourself. Go to the internet site of the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat (Semarnat) at http://www.semarnat.gob, and at the very bottom of the home page you will find the Spanish language equivalent of ?Links of Interest?. There, you can choose from the list ?Informe Preliminar del RETC.? That?s Spanish for ?Preliminary PRTR Report.?

Your next step will be to sign in, which is a relatively painless process in this case, especially when you consider that it gives you carte blanches to never-before-available company names and production site addresses tied to the amounts of toxic substances each transfers or releases to air, land and water.

That?s something similar to the 20-year-old Toxic Release Inventory in the United States, the National Pollutant Release Inventory accessible in Canada since 1992, Australia?s National Pollutant Inventory, and the European Pollutant Emission Register.

If this seems like a scary proposition for the Mexican companies involved, indeed it is. Probably only about one-third of the locations that should have reported to the new registry actually complied with the federal requirement.

Those that took part risked airing their dirty laundry, while those that didn?t covered up theirs. Obviously, the representatives of the former category must insist that those in the latter step up to the plate. Enforcement and sanctions would help convince the laggards. But heightened awareness and corporate social responsibility will ultimately be the elements to assure full and accurate reporting.

Let?s look further into how this works. If you select ?arsenic? from the substance list, you will find about eight dozen plant sites in about two dozen states reporting discharges, ranging from 0.0001 to 8.0631 metric tons apiece. That?s for the year of 2004, based on data companies reported to Semarnat in 2005 for publication this year.

With this information, a person could: write a whale of an article, design a local environmental cleanup strategy, figure out how a manufacturer could save money with substitute inputs, decide the appropriate location for a toxic waste confinement, target regulatory schemes for priority parts of industrial sectors, choose to locate in a state that has relatively lower emissions, make a comparison when next year?s reporting is finished ? or vilify the emitter.

But wait. Keep in mind that these are ?preliminary? statistics. The businesses that reported to the register have been granted a comment period to make corrections. Also, the emissions are not separated from the transfers in the data sets, so you can?t assume that a substance released necessarily filtered into the local environment; it might have been shipped elsewhere for processing.

The best use of the new numbers is perhaps as a starting point for asking more specific questions. The reactions you get from those responsible for the figures will be determinant.

The people who made sure their companies took part in the first cycle of reporting voted with their action for heightened cooperation between stakeholders for improved well-being and better living standards. Their enlightened involvement deserves praise, not disparagement.

Any number of glitches exist in the presentation of the documents. The new register has far to go to be all it can be. But that is true of every pollutant inventory in the world. These tools are constantly evolving. Having any reference at all for Mexico is a major step forward. Judicious use and constructive criticism of the inventory will promote its progress.

Talli Nauman is a founder and co-director of Journalism to Raise Environmental Awareness, a project initiated with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. (talli@hughes.net)