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June 08, 2006
Tox Town
From the United States National Library of Medicine Tox Town Fact Sheet:
Tox Town (http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov) is an interactive guide to commonly encountered toxic substances, your health, and the environment. Tox Town helps users explore a Town, City, Farm, or US-Mexico Border community to identify common environmental hazards.
Each neighborhood is toured by selecting “Location” or “Chemical” links. For example, a user can click on the hospital in the City scene for a list of chemicals that might be found in a hospital and a list of resources about environmental concerns for hospital patients and staff. Or a user can click on a chemical, like mercury, to see where it might be found in a neighborhood and to learn more about it. Cutaway views give an inside look at the school, a home, and other buildings for more detail.
Tox Town uses color, graphics, sounds, and animation to convey connections between chemicals, the environment, and the public's health. It is designed to provide:
Facts on everyday locations where toxic chemicals might be found
Information about how the environment can affect human health
Non-technical descriptions of chemicals
Links to authoritative chemical information on the Internet
Internet resources on environmental health topics.
Tox Town also offers some resources en español (http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/espanol/).
Tox Town is recommended for high school and college students, educators, and the concerned public. It is a companion to the extensive information in the TOXNET® collection of databases that are typically used by toxicologists and health professionals.
Tox Town's chemical and environmental information comes from the TOXNET, MedlinePlus® and MedlinePlus en español® resources of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), and other authoritative sources. Chemical descriptions are based on TOXNET and other resources and are reviewed by NLM toxicology staff. Tox Town is accredited by the Health on the Net Foundation (HON).
Tox Town is a project of the Specialized Information Services Division of the NLM and is part of its mission to address the toxicology and environmental health information needs of the general public. NLM plans to expand Tox Town to include more chemicals and new locations, such as an Arctic community and a port region.
Posted by d-nadler at June 8, 2006 04:18 PM