Toxins and other hazardous substances are increasingly prevalent in today's environment, placing added value on the skills of industrial hygienists and occupational safety professionals to identify and respond quickly to those hazards as they arise.

The National Library of Medicine's (NLM's) Toxicology and Environmental Health Information Program (TEHIP) databases provide an invaluable resource to address these issues. The databases include TEHIP's TOXNET® (Toxicology Data Network) databases (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov). These bibliographic and factual databases provide the kind of quality, up-to-date, relevant information needed to respond to any situation involving hazardous substances. The TOXNET databases include:

• ChemID plus (Chemical Identification Plus)
• DART/ETIC (Development and Reproductive Toxicology)
• HSDB ® (Hazardous Substances Data Bank)
• TOXLINE ® (Toxicology Information Online)
• TRI (Toxics Release Inventory)

In partnership with NLM, the Medical Education Outreach Group (MEO) of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) provides training to health and safety professionals on navigation of the database to find critical health information quickly. Class materials consist of a manual containing copies of all overheads used in the course, step-by-step instructions for accessing each database, and handouts providing information and Web sites for other quality Internet resources.

Additional Web resources for Toxicology and Environmental Health information

For additional information, please contact:
Deborah McFalls, IH/OS SIG Coordinator
Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
P. O. Box 117, MS 10
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-0117