The Dirty Business of Handling Petroleum Products.

Here's a look at how just one oil giant--ExxonMobil--is violating the law by regularly releasing dangerous levels of toxic chemicals and other pollutants at its Everett, Massachusetts, facility.

It all starts with dangerous chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs.

Pollutants from petroleum products include these dangerous chemicals. The EPA tracks more than 100 PAHs. At least seven are known to cause cancer.

The EPA has identified 16 PAHs as priority pollutants especially harmful to people and the environment. All 16 are present at ExxonMobil's Everett, Massachusetts, Terminal.

Once they enter the environment, PAHs stay for a very long time, sometimes settling on the bottoms of rivers or lakes. Strong storms, like those expected due to climate change, can stir up the river bottom and bring those dangerous chemicals back to the water's surface.

People are exposed to PAHs through contact--swallowing, breathing, passing through skin. Anyone living or working near a waste or industrial site could be exposed to contaminated air, water, and soil.

Their health impacts are alarming: irritated breathing passages and eyes, nausea, and vomiting in the short term. Their long-term effects are even more perilous: blood or liver abnormalities; skin, lung, bladder, and gastrointestinal cancers; cataracts, kidney and liver...