Ten Years of Change: National Library of Medicine TOXMAP Gets a New Look

Abstract

The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) TOXNET® databases <http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov> provide broad coverage of environmental health information covering a wide variety of topics, including access to the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA)'s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data. The NLM web-based geographic information system (GIS), TOXMAP® <http://toxmap.nlm.nih.gov/>, provides interactive maps which show where TRI chemicals are released into the environment and links to TOXNET for information about these chemicals. TOXMAP also displays locations of Superfund sites on the EPA National Priority List, as well as information about the chemical contaminants at these sites. This column focuses on a new version of TOXMAP which brings it up to date with current web GIS technologies and user expectations.

KEYWORDS:

• Chemical releases
• environmental health
• GIS
• maps
• superfund
• toxicology
• TOXMAP
• TRI

Notes

Comments and suggestions should be sent to the Column Editor: Emily Vardell ([email protected])

Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/wmrs.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Colette Hochstein

Colette Hochstein, DMD, MLS ([email protected]) is a Technical Information Specialist, Division of Specialized Information Services, National Library of Medicine, 6707 Democracy Boulevard, Bethesda, MD 20892.

Darren Gemoets

Darren Gemoets, BS, is a Lead Technical Consultant, Aquilent, Inc., 1100 West Street, Laurel, MD 20707.

Jeanne Goshorn

Jeanne Goshorn, MS ([email protected]) is Branch Chief of the Biomedical Information Services, Division of Specialized Information Services, National Library of Medicine, 6707 Democracy Boulevard, Bethesda, MD 20892.