1. Your Health and the Environment: Resources from the National Library of Medicine
Shannon M. Baldwin, MPH
Specialized Information Services
National Library of Medicine

2. Quick and reliable access Quality health information
Why NLM?
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3. National Library of Medicine
What is NLM? NLM is the World’s Largest biomedical library. Many people know NLM only by its most well-known resource: Medline (also often referred to now as PubMed). But NLM has numerous resources and databases in addition to Medline that can assist the public health workforce. Today we will focus on the Environ. health and tox. resources, but will mention a few others as time permits.

4. Environmental Health Information Product User Continuum
Tox Town
Tox Tutorials
ChemIDplus
Special Topics
Tox Training
TOXMAP
Chemical Spell Checker
Haz-Map
TOXNET
Household Products
TEHIP maintains a comprehensive toxicology and environmental health web site that includes access to products which are focused across the broad spectrum of users…from professionals, such as emergency responders, public health professionals, researchers, educators, students, as well as the concerned consumer.
DIRLINE
WISER
AIDSinfo
Professional
General Public

6. Topic Page Example
Here is an example of the Chem. and Drug inform. from NLM page. This clearly states that if you have a specific chemical(s) you are interested in, start with Chemidplus. In addition, researchers and health professionals may also want to look at TOXLINE, HSDB, etc. Non-professionals or students may want to try Household products or tox town.
This is just a guide to help people get started and understand the variety of resources available. Please note, that these refer just to NLM resources. We are aware that many other government agencies and other organizations have fantastic resources, but these pages focus specifically on NLM resources.

7. Especially for Health Professionals
Another example – The especially for Health Professionals page suggests several databases for starting points including TOXLINE, HSDB, Haz-Map, Chemidplus, and household products. Further down on the page, other resources for health professionals and their patients are listed.

8. Toxicology Tutorials Three web-based “mini-textbooks on toxicology
Before we start searching the various databases, the major focus of today’s class, I do want to point out several other useful resources available.
Let’s start with the Toxicology Tutorials. A number of years ago, NLM developed three mini online textbooks of toxicology that are geared at the upper undergraduate, beginning graduate level.

9. Toxicology Tutorial I: Basic Principles
Please note that these do look a bit “old-fashioned” , but they are undergoing an overhaul – both the content and look are being changed.
The tutorials are organized by chapter and offer text, graphics, and even quizzes or assessments to see if you understood the material.
Includes text, graphics, and online quizzes

10. EnviroHealthLinks (Internet Resource Guides)
Arsenic and Human Health
Biological Warfare Agents
Chemical Warfare Agents
Children’s Environmental Health
Environmental Justice
Indoor and Outdoor Air Pollution
Toxicogenomics
World Trade Center – Lingering Airborne Hazards
WNV – Pesticides for Mosquito Control
Another set of resources are our Internet Resource Guides or Envirohealth links. So far we have developed a handful of “lists of links” on some important env. health issues such as…
We have several more in development and resource guides on indoor and outdoor air pollution, pesticides, and toxicogenomics should be available by the end of the year.

11. Environmental Justice Resources

12. Other Environmental Health and Toxicology Resources
As I mentioned, our new topic and esp. for pages focus on NLM resources. For a more complete listing of env. health and tox. resources available on the web, we have compiled a list of resources by government agency, international resources, associations, etc.
NLM is also developing a World Library on Toxicology and Environmental Health that will contain links to resources from many countries. Please see me if you think your organization would like to participate and provide information on toxicology resources in your country.

13. Tox Town: An Interactive Guide to Potentially Toxic Substances and Environmental Health Issues

14. Tox Town: Healthy Schools

15. Tox Town: EPA’s Managing Asthma in Schools

16. Tox Town goes Urban: City Scene
Hospital
Construction site
Dentist office
EMF
Airplanes

17. Tox Town: Hazards in Hospitals

18. Tox Town: US – Mexico Border Scene

19. Tox Town Farm

20. Tox Town en Español
ox Town is now available in both English, and en español, Visitors can learn in English or in Spanish about environmental health concerns and over 30 toxic chemicals in these imaginary neighborhoods: a City, Farm, Town, US-Mexico Border, and Port.

21. Household Products Database http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/
his database links over 8,000 consumer brands to health effects from Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) provided by manufacturers and allows scientists and consumers to research products based on chemical ingredients. The database is designed to help answer the following typical questions:
What are the chemical ingredients and their percentage in specific brands?
Which products contain specific chemical ingredients?
Who manufactures a specific brand? How do I contact this manufacturer?
What are the acute and chronic effects of chemical ingredients in a specific brand?
What other information is available about chemicals in the toxicology-related databases of the National Library of Medicine?

22. Household Products Database
Click Products Tab
Select Brand:
Arrid Extra Dry A&D Spray

23. Household Products: Brand Information
Manufacturer
Health Effects
Handling/Disposal
Ingredients

24. Household Products: Health Effects

25. Household Products: Ingredients

26. Household Products: Chemical Information

27. Haz-Map: An Occupational Health Database
Links jobs and hazardous tasks to occupational diseases, symptoms, & agents

28. Haz-Map: An Occupational Health Database
Search example: Potential causes of dizziness and chest tightness in farmers

29. Haz-Map: Organophosphate pesticide poisoning in farm workers

30. Haz-Map: Link to PubMed

31. Haz-Map: Link to Potential Agents
Scroll down to the agents
section and select organo-phosphates

32. Haz-Map: Link to Chlorpyrifos
Select chlorpyrifos
from the list of organo-phosphates

33. TOXMAP Mapping EPA Toxic Release Sites http://toxmap.nlm.nih.gov
Enter a quick search here
Search example:
Chemical: Benzene
City: Saint Louis
State: MO

34. Facilities releasing Benzene near Saint Louis, MO

35. Identify Facilities on Map

36. List all chemicals released by facility

37. Links to Health Information
Click on the link in the left margin which opens a pop-up window to the benzene record in NLM’s Hazardous Substance Data Bank

38. Benzene Trends over Time near Saint Louis, MO
Triangles indicate net increase or decrease from

39. Medline Plus Home Page http://medlineplus.gov

40. Medline Plus Health Topics
Select the Health Topics Tab

41. Medline Plus Health Tutorials

42. Medline Plus Drug Information

43. Medline Plus en español

44. TOXNET http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov
Search All databases for the effects of TCE on children
NLM’s premier toxicology and env. health resource is TOXNET. TOXNET is a collection of a variety of types of databases, including online handbooks, bibliographic databases, information on the release of chemicals in the environment, and chemical names and structures. Here is a sample search. Enter your search and all databases are searched and the number of records retrieved from each displayed. Here we are looking for the effects of the chemical TCE (also known as trichloroethylene) on children. Now click on the number next to HSDB or the Hazardous Substances Data Bank

45. Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB) Search Results

46. HSDB TCE Record: Information on Children
Human Health Effects
Emergency Medical Treatment
Environmental Fate/Exposure
Environmental Standards & Regulations
Chemical/Physical Properties
Here is the HSDB TCE record. HSDB is an online handbook containing comprehensive information on the toxic effects of over 4,500 chemicals. Information such as Human health effects, emergency medical treatment, environmental fate and exposure, standards and regulations, safety and handling, as well as chemical and physical properties are described. Click on the type of information you are interested in on the left and the data appears on the right.

47. TOXLINE
TOXLINE is a bibliographic database of toxicology literature from scientific journals, technical reports, ongoing research reports, and unpublished data submitted to the EPA.

48. TOXLINE Search Results

49. WISER Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders

50. WISER http://wiser.nlm.nih.gov
Information tailored for emergency responders
Assist in identifying unknown substances
Emergency treatment and containment information
Stand-alone with enhanced connected (wireless) capabilities

51. Click to walk through views

52. NLM Environmental Health Listservs
What’s new from NLM’s Environmental Health and Toxicology Program
How to keep up? NLM offers two env. health listservs. Both are announcement only and you rarely get more than one message a week for each.
The first is a way to keep up with our env. health resources. After today, you may want to join and find out what’s new – new databases, additions to databases, etc. Approximately once a week (and usually less often) you will receive a message about new activities or updates to our resources.
The second listserv is to keep up with env. health issues in the news. Through medline plus you have access to the latest medical news from Reuters, NY Times, etc. Rather than going to the medlineplus news and looking up environmental health, simply join the listserv and get a once a week message about env. health articles published in the popular press.
Environmental health issues in the news

53. For More Information on your Health and the Environment
Contact:
Specialized Information Services
National Library of Medicine
I hope we’ve highlighted some of NLM’s long-standing and upcoming resources on environmental health. There are many other interesting activities in NLM’s Specialized Information Services division which we did not get to highlight today, so please contact us if you have any questions or want more information.
We are starting a new NLM announcements listserv on environmental health and toxicology and we will pass out sign up sheets if you are interested in keeping up-to-date with our resources and services.
Thank you for your time.