The environment is increasingly recognized as having a powerful effect on human and ecological health, as well as on specific types of human morbidity, mortality, and disability. While the public relies heavily on federal and state regulatory agencies for protection from exposures to hazardous substances, it often looks to health professionals for information about routes of exposure and the nature and extent of associated adverse health consequences. However, most health professionals acquire only a minimal knowledge of toxicology during their education and training. In 1967 the National Library of Medicine (NLM) created an information resource, known today as the Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Program (TEHIP). In 1995 the NLM asked the Institute of Medicine to examine the accessiblity and utility of the TEHIP databases for the work of health professionals. This resulting volume contains chapters on TEHIP and other toxicology and environmental health databases, on understanding the toxicology and environmental health information needs of health professionals, on increasing awareness of information resources through training and outreach, on accessing and navigating the TEHIP databases, and on program issues and future directions.

In the 1978 Love Canal toxic waste crisis, concerned citizens "did a far better job of evaluating the health of the community than did the professionals of the New York Health Department," asserts Marvin Legator. In Chemical Alert! A Community Action Handbook, he and coeditor Sabrina Strawn offer a step-by-step guide that can be used by any lay person or citizens' group to determine whether a health risk exists in their area. Writing for the general reader with no scientific expertise, environmental, medical, and legal professionals instruct communities on the organizational and investigative techniques that will produce a valid, scientific case study. With these tools, citizens living near petrochemical plants or waste disposal areas—or who may have simply noticed a high incidence of certain health problems in their community—can determine for themselves whether a problem really exists and seek remediation. Given the reality that government agencies often lack the resources—or the will—to detect health hazards before they affect a community, an informed citizenry should be its own best environmental watchdog.

This new fifth edition of Information Resources in Toxicology offers a consolidated entry portal for the study, research, and practice of toxicology. Both volumes represents a unique, wide-ranging, curated, international, annotated bibliography, and directory of major resources in toxicology and allied fields such as environmental and occupational health, chemical safety, and risk assessment. The editors and authors are among the leaders of the profession sharing their cumulative wisdom in toxicology's subdisciplines. This edition keeps pace with the digital world in directing and linking readers to relevant websites and other online tools.Due to the increasing size of the hardcopy publication, the current edition has been divided into two volumes to make it easier to handle and consult. Volume 1: Background, Resources, and Tools, arranged in 5 parts, begins with chapters on the science of toxicology, its history, and informatics framework in Part 1. Part 2 continues with chapters organized by more specific subject such as cancer, clinical toxicology, genetic toxicology, etc. The categorization of chapters by resource format, for example, journals and newsletters, technical reports, organizations constitutes Part 3. Part 4 further considers toxicology's presence via the Internet, databases, and software tools. Among the miscellaneous topics in the concluding Part 5 are laws and regulations, professional education, grants and funding, and patents. Volume 2: The Global Arena offers contributed chapters focusing on the toxicology contributions of over 40 countries, followed by a glossary of toxicological terms and an appendix of popular quotations related to the field.The book, offered in both print and electronic formats, is carefully structured, indexed, and cross-referenced to enable users to easily find answers to their questions or serendipitously locate useful knowledge they were not originally aware they needed. Among the many timely topics receiving increased emphasis are disaster preparedness, nanotechnology, -omics, risk assessment, societal implications such as ethics and the precautionary principle, climate change, and children's environmental health. - Introductory chapters provide a backdrop to the science of toxicology, its history, the origin and status of toxicoinformatics, and starting points for identifying resources - Offers an extensive array of chapters organized by subject, each highlighting resources such as journals, databases,organizations, and review articles - Includes chapters with an emphasis on format such as government reports, general interest publications, blogs, and audiovisuals - Explores recent internet trends, web-based databases, and software tools in a section on the online environment - Concludes with a miscellany of special topics such as laws and regulations, chemical hazard communication resources, careers and professional education, K-12 resources, funding, poison control centers, and patents - Paired with Volume Two, which focuses on global resources, this set offers the most comprehensive compendium of print, digital, and organizational resources in the toxicological sciences with over 120 chapters contributions by experts and leaders in the field