Web Resources for the Health Care Provider: One challenge arising from increased public access to information through the Internet is the demand by citizens for interpretation of their data base inquiry results. Health care professionals may find themselves fielding questions on cause and effect linkages when citizens have found co-existing factors, such as an industry with regulated air emissions in a neighborhood where several women were with diagnosed with breast cancer.
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has made the medical data bases PubMed and GratefulMed and a toxicology data base available for public access. These can be searched for environmental linkages to illnesses.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes local health statistics accessible through the Internet, and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is developing geo-mapped displays of regulated facilities. Follow health and environmental issues through CDC’s MMWR.
The Children’s Environmental Health Network
provides information on the issue of children’s environmental health, and links to sources of information and resources in the field.
Scorecord is an environmental information service provided by the Environmental Defense Fund. By entering your zip code, you can find out what pollutants are being released into your community. This information is from the federal Toxic Release Inventory (TRI).