 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Martha Szczur1, Chris Krahe, MS2, and Stacey J. Arnesen, MS1. (1) Specialized Information Services, National Library of Medicine, 6707 Democracy Blvd., Suite 510, Bethesda, MD 20892, 301-496-6073, szczurm@mail.nlm.nih.gov, (2) Aquilent, Inc., 1100 West Street, Laurel, MD 20707
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is always looking for ways to present its abundance of environmental health information in an integrated, meaningful way. Would a GIS approach to integrating and linking these data sources be of interest and value to the public health community? To address this question, the NLM developed a prototype GIS system called "TOXMAP". With TOXMAP, users explore data from NLM's TOXNET databases (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/). Maps show chemical releases by amount and location and trends over time as documented in the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). Using location and waterway names from the map, TOXMAP searches TOXLINE, an extensive environmental health bibliographic database. Users are also presented with a rich resource of data on these hazardous chemicals via the Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB). This presentation will focus on the design concepts, implementation strategy, challenges, and feedback results from beta testing TOXMAP. It will also address how the visual display offered by GIS tools can enhance the recognition of potential exposures and resulting health effects. Plans for development include the integration of additional public health data sets into TOXMAP.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Geographic Information Systems, Environmental Health
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: National Library of Medicine
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.