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Tox Town - Environmental health concerns and toxic chemicals where you live, work, and play
What's New
en español

New Location Looks at Potential Health Impact of Climate Change

Climate change is a long-term shift in temperature, precipitation, and wind. Extreme warm or cold temperatures caused by climate change may aggravate several chronic diseases, including heart disease and respiratory diseases. Higher temperatures and more rainfall can increase diseases from bacteria, viruses, and parasites.

Information in this new location will teach you about:

  • Climate Change and how it differs from global warming;
  • Chemicals that make up greenhouse gases and how greenhouse gases relate to climate change;
  • Human activities that release pollution that contribute to climate change; and
  • Health effects of climate change.

 Visit any of the Tox Town neighborhoods to learn about climate change and how it can affect your health.

 

October 08, 2008

New from MedlinePlus:  Disaster Information Pages

Learn about man-made and natural disasters from the new topic pages available from MedlinePlus in both English and Spanish:


• Earthquakes   [Terremotos]
• Fires   [Incendios]  
• Floods   [Inundaciones]
• Hurricanes   [Huracanes]
• Radiation Emergencies   [Emergencias causadas por la radiación]
• Tornadoes   [Tornados]
• Tsunamis   [Tsunamis]
• Volcanoes   [Volcanes]
• Winter Weather Emergencies   [Emergencias causadas por el clima invernal]


These pages have replaced the MedlinePlus pages formerly titled Man-Made Disasters and Natural Disasters.

July 09, 2008

Tox Town Adds Salud Ambiental and Sustancias Quimicas Tóxicas to Its Vocabulary

Tox Town now offers an expanded Spanish-language version en español at http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/espanol.  Visitors can learn about salud ambiental (environmental health) and sustancias quimicas tóxicas (toxic chemicals) in Spanish or English. Tox Town introduces environmental health concerns such as drinking water and air quality along with descriptions of over 30 toxic chemicals in these imaginary neighborhoods: City, Farm, Town, US-Mexico Border, and Port.

Tox Town en español identifies information in a subject area – environmental health and toxicology in the United States – that currently has few Spanish language Web resources. To supplement the limited resources in Spanish, nearly 100 pages of background information describing environmental health concerns were translated and reviewed by a team of bilingual health information specialists. 

Tox Town is ideal for supplementing high school and college classes in environmental science, earth science, forensics, and health. Also, students learning to read either English or Spanish may use Tox Town to improve language skills as they move back and forth between the Spanish and English text.

May 06, 2008

Animal Health and Human Health Issues Converge!

The Tox Town team has published an article in the September 2007 issue of The Wildlife Professional http://www.wildlifejournals.org/archive/1933-2866/1/3/pdf/i1933-2866-1-3-36.pdf titled "Resources for Wildlife Professionals". This article uses case studies to discuss how wildlife professionals can use National Library of Medicine (NLM) Web resources — Tox Town, TOXNET, PubMed, and MedlinePlus — to obtain information on:

  • chronic wasting disease,
  • urban fish kills,
  • toxic chemical manufacturing and releases near public lands, and
  • occupational health risks for wildlife workers.

For these and many other topics, wildlife managers look to NLM and the National Institutes of Health for current research and information on the impact of the environment and toxic chemicals on both the health of wildlife and on their own occupational health.

November 30, 2007

Tox Town Celebrates Its 5th Birthday with a New Look

Tox Town's web site has a fresh, new, updated look. This version features a new home page and new header and footer across all pages. The text version and Spanish version pages have a very different look. See, for example, the text page on Acetone and the Spanish-language page on Acetona

Tox Town was launched October 4, 2002.

October 04, 2007

Podcast on Highway Pollution and Children’s Lungs Features Tox Town

The NLM "Director’s Comments" March 9 podcast describes a new study reporting that children who live near a highway experience lung impairments, which could result in life long health problems. The study was recently published in the online version of The Lancet.

The podcast continues, "To learn more about environmental health, we highly recommend you visit ‘Tox Town,’...you will be surprised how much information about environmental health is at your fingertips." Also recommended are the Air Pollution and Contaminación del aire topic pages from MedlinePlus.

The weekly health update podcasts, presented by Donald A.B. Lindberg, M.D., Director of the National Library of Medicine, are available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/directorscomments.html.

March 12, 2007

Your Health and the Environment: Earth Day PDF Icon Classroom Enrichment from the National Library of Medicine

One-page color handout suggests activities using NLM resources to learn about human health and the environment, pollution, and toxic chemicals. Features Tox Town, TOXMAP, and Household Products Database.

March 12, 2007

Tox Town receives World Wide Web Health Award.

Tox Town received a bronze category award from the World Wide Web Health Awards program.

January 03, 2007

New Port Neighborhood Highlights Coastal Environmental Health Concerns

Did you ever wonder about environmental health risks at the beach or in a coastal community? If so, visit Tox Town’s new Port neighborhood to learn about environmental health risks along the coast and in harbors.

Why do harmful algae blooms grow and how do they affect the fish and shellfish you cook for dinner? What happens to all of the trash and sewage on a cruise ship? How do toxic chemicals and paint used in ship repair and ship building get into the coastal waters and affect the community? How does fish farming affect the community? Answers to these and other questions can be found in the following new locations in the Port scene: algae blooms, a beach, a fish farm, shellfishing, a cruise ship, a marina, shipping facility, a shipyard, and coastal brownfields.

Other potential environmental health concerns include a wastewater treatment plant, cesspools, fuel pipelines, a nuclear power plant, septic systems, storms and floods, and industrial runoff.

This scene will give you something to think about the next time you take a trip to the coast or go swimming at the beach!

November 21, 2006

New tools for introducing Tox Town

A new 2-minute video and transcriptPDF Icon give an overview of Tox Town and its features. The video file size is 20 megabytes and it uses Windows Media Player.

Tox Town - A Resource for Teachers and Students includes 27 PowerPoint slides and a scriptPDF Icon introducing Tox Town for classroom use.

For science teachers, there's also a new overview of NLMs classroom and homework Internet resources. Resources for Science Teachers - Classroom Resources from the National Library of Medicine includes 38 slides with a scriptPDF Icon introducing NLM web resources useful in Biology, Chemistry, Genetics, Earth Science, and Environmental Science courses. It also includes resources on the history of medicine, health careers, and Spanish-language resources.

October 19, 2006

Voice of America has selected Tox Town as "Website of the Week".

You can read the transcript or listen to the short broadcast at http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2006-08/2006-08-25-voa1.cfm?CFID=191827698&CFTOKEN=40331983. The broadcast features Marti Szczur, Deputy Associate Director of Specialized Information Services, introducing Tox Town.

August 25, 2006

New: Resources for Science Teachers: Classroom Resources from the National Library of MedicinePDF Icon.

This one-page, two-sided color handout lists web resources for Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Health, and Genetics courses. Also includes career information and Spanish-language resources.

April 11, 2006

New Farm Scene Provides a Home for Rural Environmental Health Concerns

Visitors can explore the new Farm neighborhood to learn about the environmental health concerns of agricultural and rural communities. Many concerns are common to both the Farm and the other Tox Town scenes: the City, Town and US-Mexico Border. But farms also have unique issues with hazardous agricultural chemicals, toxic gases from animal waste, rural dumping, and farm safety. Farming is one of the most hazardous occupations in the United States. Because farm families usually live where they work, all family members are at increased risk of farm-related injury and illness.

The Farm features a shed, barn and silo, crop fields, large-scale feeding operation, landfill, agricultural runoff, farm pond, meat processing, tree farming and logging, off-road vehicles, and nearby urban sprawl. Each location lists toxic chemicals that might be found there and answers questions like "Why are farm ponds a concern?" and "What are feeding operations?"

The Clip Art & Publicity Materials page features Farm images suitable for web sites and publications.

January 09, 2006

What's New Archives

Last updated: July 16, 2008

Interactive Graphic Neighborhoods City Farm Town US - Mexico Border Port