Selected websites with toxicology education resources for the general public.
Glossaries, Tutorials, and Other Instructional Materials
| Risk Bites YouTube “Risk Bites” videos (http://riskbites.org/#Home) and blogs are entertaining and full of good information about chemical risks and other current topics related to risk. |
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| Sense About Science Organization dedicated to sharing scientific reasoning and giving people the tools to question pseudoscience and misleading claims. Subjects posted on their website help viewers cut through the noise around scientific and medical issues, including specific topics of relevance to toxicology.
See also more about the critical need to “ask for evidence” when attempting to separate fact from fiction at http://www.senseaboutscience.org/pages/understanding-evidence.html#sthash.b1RPCiKv.dpuf
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| Toxicology Tutorials from the National Library of Medicine See how much you already know about toxicology and expand on that by working through these tutorials. |
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| ToxLearn – A Gateway to Toxicology A two module learning tool designed to provide fundamental background for further study of toxicology. Does not require more than a basic knowledge of biology and chemistry. |
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K-12 Education Resources
| TOXinvaders App by National Library of Medicine (NLM), engages young adolescents in a fast-paced attack on toxic chemicals in the environment. The game supports middle school science concepts about environment and health. | |
| Environmental Health Student Portal A National Library of Medicine resource, connecting Middle School students to information about Environmental Health |
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Databases
| National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC) Information about specific pesticides and pesticide-related topics. A cooperative agreement between Oregon State University and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. |
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| Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), eChem Portal A global portal to information on chemical substances. eChemPortal provides free public access to information on properties of chemicals including physicochemical properties, ecotoxicity, environmental fate and behavior, and toxicity. eChemPortal allows simultaneous searching of reports and datasets by chemical name and number and by chemical property. | |
| TOXNET: Toxicology Data Network Access and search the National Library of Medicine’s TOXNET databases for information on the toxicology of specific chemicals, toxic releases, and general environmental health and toxicology subjects.Also accessible through this link that also provides tips for the public on how to access and use the database: http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro.html |
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Government Websites
| Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) In particular, see the Toxicology Profiles and many other publications offered to the general public by the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Their purpose is to prevent harmful exposures and diseases related to toxic substances. | |
| Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Useful information about a broad variety of consumer safety topics, some related to household products containing chemicals with hazardous properties. | |
| Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, US) Information-rich website includes current issues and regulations pertaining to chemicals that can pose potential risks to human health and the environment either during manufacturing or in emissions and waste products. In particular, you may want to check out ACToR (Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource) is EPA’s online warehouse of all publicly available chemical toxicity data about potential chemical risks to human health and the environment. |
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| Food and Drug Administration (FDA, US) Check out the tabs visible at the Safety page link that lead to safety information about foods, drugs, cosmetics, radioactive materials, medical devices, vaccines, veterinary products and other topics of interest to toxicologists. |
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| National Academy of Sciences (NAS) The National Academies were founded by Congress to meet the government’s need for independent advice on a broad scope of scientific matters. Try searching “toxicology” at this website to see whether the topic of your interest is among the many scientific issues the NAS has been asked to address. | |
| National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Workplace safety and health topics that include chemical, biological and physical hazards. | |
| National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) One of the research institutes that comprise the National Institutes of Health, NIEHS’s mission is to discover how the environment affects people in order to promote healthier lives. The Health and Education and Research sections are likely to be of special interest to the general public looking for more information about toxicology. | |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) The NIH is the medical research agency of the United States. Although the website of the NIEHS, an NIH institute, concentrates more on information of special interest to toxicology, also take a look at the Science Education pages of the main NIH website that are intended to address specific interests of the general public. | |
| National Library of Medicine (NLM) The NLM is largest biomedical library in the world. The NLM maintains and makes available a vast collection of both print and electronic information resources on a wide range of topics. The Environmental Health and Toxicology website http://sis.nlm.nih.gov/enviro.html leads to resources specifically for the general public as well as NLM databases and tutorials. | |
| Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Safety and health topics and other webpages provide information for workers and employers about OSHA’s regulatory standards and safety and health hazards, as well as specific regulatory standards and other hazard information related to different industries. | |
| United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Includes information on food safety, labeling, and security, and food and nutrition. Specific toxicology-related topics of interest can also be searched, for example, aflatoxins, organic foods, and GMOs. |
Professional Society and Other Nongovernmental Organization Websites
| American Public Health Association (APHA) Some of the resources offered at the APHA website focus on toxicology-related issues for the general public. Try searching the site for topics of interest. |
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| Center for Research on Ingredient Safety (CRIS) Partnership between academia, industry, government, and NGOs to establish a program for food and consumer product ingredient safety. Discussion of topics of current interest can be found in several locations of the CRIS website. |
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| Animal Free Safety Assessment Consortium
The Animal-Free Safety Assessment (AFSA) Collaboration brings together corporate and non-profit leaders who share the goal of accelerating a modern, species-relevant approach to safety assessment globally to better protect people and our planet and hasten the replacement of animal testing.
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| MotherToBaby This service of the non-profit Organization of Teratology Information Specialists is dedicated to providing evidence-based information to mothers, health care professionals, and the general public about medications and other exposures during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. Fact Sheets are available in both English and Spanish and can be downloaded for free. |
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| Society of Toxicology (SOT) The SOT website offers several Tox Topics within their Publications and News section that will be interest to the general public. Also check out their K-12 offerings within the Education section. |
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| Teratology Society Studies the causes and biological processes leading to abnormal development and birth defects, and appropriate measures for prevention. |
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| Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA) An independent, 501(c)(3) organization structured for scientific and educational purposes. Also, see Kids + Chemical Safety that provides up-to-date health information on chemical hazards and safe use of chemicals around children. Administered by Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA). | |
| World Health Organization (WHO) The Health Topics area includes many toxicology topics among the many WHO projects, initiatives, activities, information products, and contacts list, all organized by health and development topics. |
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