Selected Environmental Toxins Web Sites


Government Web Sites:

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
ATSDR's mission is to serve the public by using the best science, taking responsive public health actions, and providing trusted health information to prevent harmful exposures and disease related to toxic substances.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is recognized as the lead federal agency for protecting the health and safety of people, at home and abroad, providing credible information to enhance health decisions, and promoting health through strong partnerships. CDC serves as the national focus for developing and applying disease prevention and control, environmental health, and health promotion and education activities designed to improve the health of the people of the United States.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The EPA is the primary federal agency responsible for regulating, monitoring, enforcing and setting standards relating to environmental toxins. Their site has an enormous amount of information. The complexity of the agency and it's myriad sub-units can cause some navigational confusion. Some links within the EPA site of particular interest are:

Food and Drug Administration
FDA's mission is to promote and protect the public health by helping safe and effective products reach the market in a timely way, and monitoring products for continued safety after they are in use. Their work is a blending of law and science aimed at protecting consumers.

National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH)
A component of the centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the NCEH was established to provide national leadership, through science and service, that promotes health and quality of life by preventing or controlling those diseases, birth defects, disabilities, or deaths that result from interactions between people and their environment.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
A component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) works to reduce the burden of human illness and dysfunction from environmental causes by understanding environmental factors, individual susceptibility and age and how they interrelate. The NIEHS includes the National Toxicology Program.


Online Databases:

Materials Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)
The purpose of a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) is to inform industrial purchasers and users of hazardous chemicals of the reasonably foreseeable physical and chemical hazards that may arise from the use of those chemicals. The MSDS includes precautions for normal use, handling, storage, disposal, and spill cleanup.

PubMed
PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, provides access to over 11 million MEDLINE citations back to the mid-1960's and additional life science journals. PubMed includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources. Includes the Toxicology subset of citations.

TOXNET
TOXNET is sponsored by the National Library of Medicine, through the Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Program of its Specialized Information Services Division. The TOXNET databases provide access to toxicology data, literature and chemical information. Databases include CCRIS, ChemIDplus, DART/EMIC, GENE-Tox, HSDB, IRIS, NCI-3D, TOXLINE, and TRI. Toxicology Tutorials available at

Organization Web Sites:

Environmental Working Group
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a not-for-profit environmental research organization dedicated to improving public health and protecting the environment by reducing pollution in air, water and food.

ScoreCard ScoreCard is a comprehensive online tool for monitoring and taking action on chemical releases and other forms of pollution nationwide and locally. It is maintained by Environmental Defense, a non-profit organization, dedicated to protecting the environmental rights of all people. This site provides excellent interpretive information. Most of the interpreted data is gathered from EPA and related agency sources.


Utah Web Sites:

Utah Department of Environmental Quality (UDEQ)
UDEQ is the primary state agency responsible for local monitoring and enforcement of federal regulations. This department has divisions that focus on air, water and land. The site has a limited amount of information, but provides some good local data and some leads to external sites with more detail. Interactive Map

Families Against Incinerator Risk (FAIR)
Safer alternative technologies have been developed and are being used by other states to neutralize their chemical weapons stockpiles. Indiana and Maryland, for example, have abandoned incineration in favor of these safer alternatives. Families Against Incinerator Risk is working to have these better technologies brought to Utah so that we can eliminate the possibility of nerve agent and other toxins being released into our air.

Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah (HEAL)


Websites selected by Jeanne Le Ber and Nancy Lombardo May 2002