Web Resources: Environment

ENVIRONMENT

* indicates a site containing maps/chart
• symbol represents a site we find particularly useful.

Activist & Advocacy Resources

Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (http://www.asthmacapitals.com)
AAFA provides practical information, community based services and support to people through a network of Regional Chapters, Educational Support Groups and other Local Partners around the U.S. AAFA develops health education, organizes state and national advocacy efforts and funds research to find better treatments and cures. In addition, the mission of AAFA's Web site is to provide online access to AAFA's reliable, validated asthma and allergy information and tools to families, patients, parents, healthcare providers, policymakers and others.

* Clary-Meuser Research Network (http://www.mapcruzin.com)
This site contains useful environmental mapping resources and tutorials. Free and low-cost ready-to-use GIS digital maps in popular formats. Includes 2000 Toxic Release Inventory digital maps. The organization performs environmental and socio demographic research, GIS analysis, and develops WebMap projects for non-profit environmental organizations. Subscribe to various discussions and update lists including RTK-Watch, dedicated to the public disclosure, communication, access, and use of environmental data and information.

• Collaborative on Health and Environment Database (http://database.healthandenvironment.org)
This is a scientifically based, web-interactive database summarizing the evidence of exposure to chemical contaminants and over 180 associated human diseases or conditions. It is a useful tool for researchers, health professionals, health-affected groups and others interested in reviewing the weight of evidence between associated toxicants and diseases. The database also features a new and extensive list of links to other useful databases and resources.

Co-op America (http://www.coopamerica.org)
National Green Pages database with 10,000 products and businesses. Company ratings database with data from the Council on Economic Priorities. This database, searchable by product or company, provides an overview for each company with specific problems, praise, ratings and industry comparisons. Also find Co-op America's Guide to Researching Corporations as well as the campaign to end sweatshops and promoting fair trade. Site also has a guide to socially responsible investing. Co-op America educates and empowers people and businesses to make significant improvements through the economic system.

• Environmental Defense Scorecard (http://www.scorecard.org)
Find detailed reports on chemicals released by more than 20,000 industrial facilities in the US (air pollutants, toxic chemical releases, animal waste from factory farms). Search by company and location (city, zip, county, state, etc.). Maps. Includes rankings of plant compared to its industry. Report only includes the top 20 polluting facilities in an area. Includes regulatory controls on specific chemicals and information on the health effects of the chemicals. Good glossary of terms. Environmental Defense is a leading national nonprofit organization representing more than 300,000 members.

Environmental Working Group (http://www.ewg.org)
This website has extensive searchable research resources on health and the environment. Issues covered include toxics, pesticides, consumer consmetic products, drinking water, arsenic in pressure treated wood and air pollution. Various databases including farm subsidies database, nuclear waste route map and archives of internal chemical industry documents, on which a Bill Moyers expose on the chemical industry poisoning of workers was partly based. 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.

Gateway on Pesticide Hazards and Safe Pest Management (http://www.beyondpesticides.org/gateway/index.htm)
This service currently has information on 81 chemicals, and includes fact sheets, popular product and manufacturer names, chemical class, regulatory status and other information. The website is "intended to provide decision and policy makers, practitioners and activists with easier access to current and historical information on pesticide hazards and safe pest management." Click on the “About the Gateway” tab on the left to find additional activist tools.

Greenpeace International (http://www.greenpeace.org)
Good search engine using keyword. Information on their campaigns including climate change, toxics, nuclear, genetic engineering, oceans, whaling, forests, sustainable trade, and no war. Link to Greenpeace sites around the world. Greenpeace is an organization that focuses on the environment with a presence in forty countries.

Healthcare Without Harm (HCWH) (http://www.noharm.org)
A collaborative international campaign for environmentally responsible health care made up of more than 400 organizations. Focus on polyvinyl chloride (PVC), DEHP and persistent toxic chemicals, mercury, pesticides and cleaners, healthy buildings, green purchasing electronics, food and medical waste incineration. Includes resource library organized by subject and type of information. Database to search for member organizations by location and/or type of activity. To find facilities that use non-incineration technologies for medical waste look at the Alternative Technologies Database. There is a resource kit for pollution prevention in healthcare called Going Green.

Healthy Car (http://www.healthycar.org/)
Consumer action guide to toxic chemicals in cars and carseats based on research conducted by the Ecology Center that looks at the presence of key hazardous chemicals in vehicles and child car seats.

The Healthy Development Measurement Tool (http://www.thehdmt.org)
The Healthy Development Measurement Tool is a comprehensive evaluation metric to consider health needs in urban development plans and projects. The HDMT explicitly connects public health to urban development planning in efforts to achieve a higher quality social and physical environment that advances health.

Healthy Toys (http://www.healthytoys.org/)
HealthyToys.org 2008 includes test results for over 1,500 toys and children's products. HealthyToys.org is based on research conducted by environmental health organizations and other researchers around the country. The Ecology Center created HealthyToys.org and leads its research and development. The Ecology Center is a Michigan-based nonprofit environmental organization that works at the local, state, and national levels for clean production, healthy communities, environmental justice, and a sustainable future.

International Rivers Network (IRN) (http://www.irn.org)
Information on IRN efforts to stop dam-building around the world and support for local communities working to protect their rivers and watersheds. Easy pull down list to access information on current dam campaigns. Good search engine. IRN works to halt destructive river development projects, and to encourage equitable and sustainable methods of meeting needs for water, energy and flood management. Citizen's Guide to the World Commission on Dams in English, Spanish and French is an important tool for those fighting dams.

Pesticide Action Network North America (http://www.panna.org)
Advancing alternatives to pesticides. Pesticide Resources contains pesticide reform-related material, including almost everything that PANNA has published plus materials from many other organizations. Pesticide database for pesticide toxicity and regulatory information http://www.pesticideinfo.org. Pesticide advisor to help with pest and pesticide problems. PANNA works to replace pesticide use with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives. As one of five PAN Regional Centers worldwide, they link local and international consumer, labor, health, environment and agriculture groups into an international citizens' action network.

Project Underground (http://www.moles.org)
Supporting the human rights of communities resisting mining and oil exploitation. Nice searching capabilities. Links to activists and industry sources. Search Drillbits and Tailings newsletter. This website is no longer updated as of October 2003.

• Right-to-Know Network (RTKNET) Databases (http://www.rtk.net/)
The Right to Know Network (RTK) provides free access to government information on toxic releases, toxic spills, Risk Management Plans, housing, superfund sites and other environmental results of manufacturing/industry. You can search by company, industry or geographic area. Databases go back a number of years. Once on the homepage, click DATABASES to the left of the screen, now you need to decide which databases to search. A MASTER search will search all of the databases simultaneously by geographic area, facility or industry. Advanced search allows you to choose which databases to search. RTK NET was started in 1989 in support of the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA), which mandated public access to the Toxic Release Inventory.

Safe Playgrounds Project (http://www.safe2play.org)
The Safe Playgrounds Project was created to provide information to California parks and recreation sites, school districts, teachers and parents groups, childcare centers and other agencies so that they are properly informed of the health risks arsenic-treated wood poses, and so that they may take the proper actions to minimize these risks.

Skin Deep (http://www.cosmeticdatabase.com)
Cosmetic Safety Database by Environmental Working Group
Skin Deep pairs ingredients in more than 42,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. Skin Deep database provides you with easy-to-navigate safety ratings for nearly a quarter of all products on the market — 42,603 products with 8,363 ingredients. Skin Deep helps fuel the nationwide Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, http://www.safecosmetics.org/ a coalition of public health, educational, religious, labor, womens, environmental and consumer groups working to protect the health of consumers and workers by requiring the health and beauty industry to phase out the use of dangerous chemicals and replace them with safer alternatives. Through the Campaign, as of May 2007 over 500 companies have joined the effort by signing the Compact for Safe Cosmetics. Environmental Working Group is a founding partner of the Campaign.

True Cost Clearinghouse (http://www.sehn.org/tcc.html)
Here you will find articles and reports documenting the economic, health, and social costs of pollution, worker exposures, and resource exploitation, as well as the underreported benefits of remediation and precautionary policies. The Science and Environmental Health Network was founded in 1994 by a consortium of North American environmental organizations (including the Environmental Defense Fund, The Environmental Research Foundation, and OMB Watch) concerned about the misuse of science in ways that failed to protect the environment and human health.

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News & Reports

Envirolink (http://envirolink.org)
Large listing by topic of environmental resources. News headlines. Search engine for locating environmental information (ex. enter a company name for a list of articles and reports involving that company), news, organizations. Resources by topic and location.

Environmental Health Sciences was established in 2002 to help increase public understanding of emerging scientific links between environmental exposures and human health. As part of its outreach effort, EHS publishes 3 websites. The newest is www.EnvironmentalHealthNews.org (Daily news and reports, good archive searching capabilities). There is also www.OurStolenFuture.org focused on studies of hormone-disrupting chemicals and their effects on plants and animals. www.ProtectingOurHealth.org maintained by the Collaborative for Health and the Environment offers peer-reviewed overviews that evaluate the medical literature linking environmental contamination to asthma, brain cancer, breast cancer, childhood leukemia, endometriosis, infertility, learning/behavior disorders, prostate cancer and testicular cancer.

Environmental Protection (http://www.eponline.com)
This site provides pollution and waste treatment solutions for environmental professionals. It also contains daily news on hot topics such as industrial trends, energy and climate change, and sustainability.

Grist (http://www.grist.org)
Daily online environmental magazine. Back issues searchable. Grist tackles environmental topics with the goal to inform, entertain, provoke, and encourage creative thinking about environmental problems and solutions. Receive daily or weekly updates.

• Rachel's Environmental and Health Weekly (http://www.rachel.org)
Providing understandable scientific information about human health and the environment. Sign up for a free electronic subscription of this newsletter of the Environmental Research Foundation. Bilingual website and newsletter. Includes great links list by topic and alphabetical as well as database of environmental organizations. The library allows you to search by subject and/or words. Select "Rachel's" to search back issues of the weekly. Has activist organizational lists. Environmental Research Foundation (ERF) was founded in 1980 to provide understandable scientific information about the influence of toxic substances on human health and the environment.

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Policy Analyst Sources

Children's Environmental Health Network (http://www.cehn.org)
National Network. Site includes resource guide on children's environmental health, training manual, organizations involved by specific activity or project, information sources, glossary of terms, information on toxicants and policy initiatives. The Children's Environmental Health Network is a national multi-disciplinary project whose mission is to protect the fetus and the child from environmental health hazards and promote a healthy environment.

Environmental Justice Coalition (http://groups.msn.com/environmentaljusticecoalition)
Website of the African American Environmentalist Association, seeking to develop an Environmental Justice Act (EJA) to provide the framework for protecting communities with the poorest health, greatest concentration of environmental pollutants or least economic development from additional sources of pollution.

Environmental Justice Resource Center (EJRC) (http://www.ejrc.cau.edu)
People of Color Environmental Groups Directory 2000. This Center (EJRC) headed by Robert Bullard at Clark Atlanta University was formed in 1994 to serve as a research, policy, and information clearinghouse on issues related to environmental justice, race and the environment, civil rights, facility siting, land use planning, brownfields, transportation equity, suburban sprawl, and Smart Growth. Includes news, reports, curriculum guides, transportation equity newsletter, videos and presentations as well as background on the development of the environmental justice movement.

League of Conservation Voters (http://www.lcv.org)
Environmental scorecard on Congress' performance, giving percentage ratings to each elected official. Recent environmental votes are also highlighted. Nonpartisan political organization dedicated to electing a pro-environment Congress. In addition to protecting the environment through political action, they work daily to hold Congress and the administration accountable

New York University Environmental and Land Use Law Center (http://www.nyu.edu/pages/elc/ej)
This environmental justice website offers a list of background materials, discusses discriminatory sitings and enforcement, legal precedents and legislative responses to the problem. Contains links to additional resources. Not recently updated.

• PolicyLink (http://www.policylink.org/CHB/browse.html)
PolicyLink is a national research and action institute advancing economic and social equity by Lifting Up What Works®. PolicyLink seeks to ensure that everyone can contribute to and benefit from local and regional growth and development. Check out the “Resource” section.

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U.S. Government Sources

California Brownfields Database (http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/database/Calsites/calf001.cfm)
A database of site mitigation and brownfield reuse maintained by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). You can do a search by city, county, facility or zip code, and can look up sites in your community where there is cleanup around brownfields. The DTSC website has additional information on topics such as managing hazardous waste, pollution prevention and site cleanup. Look at your state's website to see if it has something similar.

* EnvironMapper (http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/em)
EnviroMapper is a powerful tool used to map various types of environmental information, including air releases, drinking water, toxic releases, hazardous wastes, water discharge permits, and Superfund sites. Select a geographic area within EnviroMapper and view the different facilities that are present within that area. Create maps at the national, state, and county levels, and link them to environmental text reports.

*• Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.epa.gov)
Numerous resources. Envirofacts page provides a single point of access to data extracted from seven major EPA databases (Toxic Release Inventory, Superfund, hazardous waste, water, air releases, etc.) http://www.epa.gov/enviro/. Envirofacts includes mapping tools. To reach Envirofacts, press "information sources", then select "databases and software", then scroll down to Envirofacts.

Environmental Protection Agency- ECHO- Enforcement and Compliance History Online (http://epa.gov/echo)
This Web site allows you to search for facilities in your community for the purpose of determining whether: EPA or State/local governments have conducted compliance inspections , violations were detected or enforcement actions were taken and penalties were assessed in response to environmental law violations. ECHO reports provide a snapshot of a facility's environmental record, showing dates and types of violations, as well as the State or Federal government's response. ECHO reports also contain demographic information from the National Census.

Hazardous Substance Fact Sheets (http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaq.html)
Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR) ToxFAQs is summaries about hazardous substances. Each fact sheet serves as a quick and easy to understand guide. Answers are provided to the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) about exposure to hazardous substances found around hazardous waste sites and the effects of exposure on human health. Most chemicals in both English and Spanish.

* HUD E-MAPS/Enterprise Geographic Information System – US Department of Housing and Urban Development (http://egis.hud.gov/egis/)
This website will provide users with easy access to mapping tools and HUD data to support housing and community development programs at the state, county, city, and neighborhood levels. Users can also create your own personal map with “Map your Community” - you are able to enter an address or click on a map and have the application take them to a map of that location.

Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET) (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/)
This Specialized Information Services National Library of Medicine site is a cluster of databases on toxicology, hazardous chemicals and related areas with factual information on toxicity and other hazards of chemicals, scientific studies and reports, and chemical information source (nomenclature, identification and structures).

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) (http://hud.esri.com/egis/)
Enterprise Geographic Information System (EGIS) is a free Internet service that combines information on HUD's community development and housing programs with census data and EPA's environmental data. Provides: location, type, and performance of HUD-funded activities in every neighborhood across the country; and selected EPA information on brownfields, hazardous wastes, air pollution and waste water discharges. Zoom in from the state level or enter a zip code or address to define the map area. Select Census to identify what census data you want shown.

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Updated April 2009. Please send Web site corrections to datacenter@datacenter.org.