EPA Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) 2004

EPA Toxics Release Inventory: 2004 TRI was made available April 12, 2006. "The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is a database containing detailed information on nearly 650 chemicals and chemical categories that over 23,000 industrial and federal facilities manage through disposal or other releases, and waste management for recycling, energy recovery, or treatment."

OECD: Poverty, environmental indicators, and more

Why a Healthy Environment Is Essential to Reducing Poverty (free) as well as other recent OECD publications related to the environment, including 'Environment at a Glance 2006 presents Key Environmental Indicators'. You may be able to access some of these for free via SourceOECD if your institution subscribes to this service.

NLM Adds New Features to TOXMAP

"Just in Time for Earth Day 2006," NLM Adds New Features to its Interactive Mapping Site, TOXMAP: "In response to feedback from users, this popular, free resource will now provide more in-depth information about chemicals that are released into the environment and their possible effects on residents' health." [Source]

Safer Cleaning Products

New American Dream, a site I found via the Interface Inc. website (remember Ray Anderson from 'The Corporation'?), seems to have a wealth of information on greener and cleaner cleaning products, as well as information on computers, paint, paper, and pest management. Also, a great source which we recommend to consumers of health information is the Household Products Database, which includes auto products, cleaning products, pesticides, yard care, personal care, home maintenance, arts and crafts, and pet care.

AHS - Agricultural Health Study

The AHS - Agricultural Health Study is checking out the health risks to the agricultural population, including the following variables:

environmental

occupational

dietary, and

genetic

89,000 people are participating. Glad to see such a worthy and huge study being undertaken on this population.

NTP: Report on Carcinogens (RoC)

NTP: Report on Carcinogens (RoC) "is an informational scientific and public health document (...) that identifies and discusses agents, substances, mixtures, or exposure circumstances that may pose a hazard to human health by virtue of their carcinogenicity. The RoC is published biennially (...)"

Acid rain: Problem unsolved

The Canadian Acid Deposition Science Assessment 2004 is available online and paints a sad picture of the problem, noting that between 21 and 75% of eastern Canada "receive levels of acid deposition in excess of critical loads (i.e. the amount of acid deposition that a particular region can receive without being adversely affected) (...) In Canada and the U.S., major sources of acid-causing emissions are electric power generation, non-ferrous mining and smelting, upstream oil and gas operations and transportation." [Source: Executive Summary]

Agents Reviewed by the IARC Monographs

This IARC (WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer) pdf could provide an interesting comparison to the data available from the National Institutes of Health Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB) -- hope I'm not comparing apples to oranges... Thought it was interesting that formaldehyde was a Group 1 in the IARC document and a Group B1 (probable human carcinogen) in the HSDB. Hmm.

The Global 100: Most Sustainable Corporations in the World

The Global 100: Most Sustainable Corporations in the World isn't exactly the kind of thing most environmentalists would jump at, but hey, it's a beginning. Do you know what corporations you've invested your money in? Chances are you don't. I don't, and that's embarrassing. Time to start taking more control over our own investments: It's hard to be taken seriously when your money is invested in Exxon. Then again, GE is listed here and you might find that utterly ridiculous (See "The Corporation").

Database: NAL Catalog (AGRICOLA)

The NAL Catalog (AGRICOLA) is another great publicly available database for retrieving literature relevant to "all aspects of agriculture and allied disciplines, including animal and veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, farming and farming systems, agricultural economics, extension and education, food and human nutrition, and earth and environmental sciences." [Source] This should be fairly familiar to anyone in an academic environment.

Health On the Net(HON): MedHunt

Health On the Net(HON): MedHunt is a great search engine if you're looking for easily accessible environmental health information on the internet.

ToxSeek: Toxicology information search tool

ToxSeek is a new toxicology information search tool, compliments of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). Subjects include toxicology and environmental health.