Environmental Factor is billed as a “state‐of‐the‐art data retrieval tool” for an “environmental consultant, insurer, re‐insurer, corporate risk assessor or part of a company actively involved in the generation, transport, storage or cleanup of hazardous waste materials.” Most of the data comes from public government databases such as RCRIS (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Information System), 23 CERCLA‐related databases (SuperFund data, Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act), BRS (Biennial Reporting System), and State Priority Sites. Environmental Factor also offers an Environmental Legal Coverage Database which contains legal data taken from The Guide to Pollution Coverage Litigation and Volumetric Information (also known as Waste‐In Lists) on approximately 140 sites.
The overriding factors that influence this review would have to be how often the EPA data is needed, the ability of Environmental Factor to link the databases, and the flexibility of exporting the data gathered into reports or analysis tools. The reason for those factors being so important is that all of the EPA databases are available for free from various web sites. One site in particular was easy to use and had three ways to format results which therefore could be imported into a spreadsheet or database. For those who have only occasional hazardous waste information needs, Environmental Factor would be overkill and the Right to Know Network at: http://xp0.rtknet.org/ would be better.
Two other factors to consider are the level of Internet access available and whether or not a local area networked system would be more effective. The only recommendation this reviewer can make is to consider the variables mentioned above and a detailed cost‐benefit analysis before purchasing. For colleges and universities with high speed Internet access and limited need for the data, e.g. a course introducing EPA data, Environmental Factor would be cost prohibitive.
