A new version of TOXMAP (http://toxmap.nlm.nih.gov) was released August 7. This version includes:
More search options: Users can now search TOXMAP by Chemical Abstracts Service/Registry Number (CAS/RN), Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) facility name/ID, release medium, release year ranges, release amount, Superfund (NPL) site name/ID, and Hazard Ranking System (HRS) score.

Geographic regions: Users can create their own geographic region, or select a pre-defined region from a menu. Setting a geographic region limits search results to those inside the specified region. Regions can be saved for future access.

Regional TRI summary tables: Users can view summary (aggregate) TRI release amounts for their geographic region.
Updated and expanded glossary and FAQs.

TOXMAP is a Geographic Information System (GIS) from the Division of Specialized Information Services (http://sis.nlm.nih.gov) of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) that uses maps of the United States to help users visually explore data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Toxics Release Inventory and Superfund Program.

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM), for the Middle Atlantic Region (MAR), is pleased to announce that the Health Sciences Library of New York Medical College received an Outreach Conference Award for the conference, Health Literacy: Tools for Improving Health Communications.

The conference, Health Literacy: Tools for Improving Health Communications, will be held May 30^th at New York Medical College. The conference, co-sponsored by New York Medical College’s Health Sciences Library, School of Public Health and the Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association (NorMet), features sessions on the interaction of health literacy from an individual and system point of view; the implementation of the Joint Commission Requirements related to the provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate health care and as a guest speaker includes Sabrina Kurtz-Ross, MEd, the MLA Health Information Literacy Research Project Coordinator and Adjunct Clinical Professor, Tufts University School of Medicine.

Registration is $10, with a May 25, 2007 registration deadline.

The Conference will be held at New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY.

From Ship to Shore…

Tox Town’s New Port Scene Delivers the Goods on Coastal Environmental Health

What do longshoremen, sunbathers, ship crews, and shrimp lovers have in common? Whether they live on the coast, work in a maritime industry or play on the beach, they can find information about the environment and how it might affect their health at Tox Town’s new Port neighborhood. This imaginary port illustrates drinking water and air quality concerns along with wastewater treatment, shellfish safety, work hazards, sun and surf safety, aquaculture and many other topics. The port also highlights possible locations and descriptions of 26 hazardous chemicals.

Tox Town, http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov, uses neighborhood scenes - the Port, City, Town, Farm, and US-Mexico Border region - along with color, graphics, sounds and animation to add interest to learning about connections between chemicals, the environment and the public’s health. Each scene focuses on unique environmental health concerns. There are 16 new locations to explore in the Port: beaches, shipyards, algae blooms, coastal brownfields, fuel tanks and pipelines, shipping centers, cruise ships, marinas, nuclear power plants, shellfishing, fish farms, storms and floods, urban and industrial runoff, septic systems, cesspools, and wastewater treatment facilities.

Tox Town’s target audience is the interested public, plus high school, college and graduate students, and educators (see the link on the home page For teachers). Tox Town also has a growing number of resources en español.

Librarians interested in promoting classroom use of Tox Town and other National Library of Medicine (NLM) resources may find these useful:

Resources for Science Teachers – Classroom Resources from NLM. Introduces NLM web resources useful in Biology, Chemistry, Genetics, Earth Science, and Environmental Science courses. Also includes resources on the history of medicine, information on health careers, and Spanish-language resources.

• 38 PowerPoint slides with script
• Color handout, one page, double sided
• Trifold brochure

Tox Town

• 27 PowerPoint slides with script introducing Tox Town to teachers and students
• Video and transcript for a general audience. This 2-minute video file is 20 megabytes and uses Windows Media Player.

Tox Town® is a project of the Specialized Information Services Division of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Promotional materials and Tox Town images for Web sites and publications are listed at http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/clipart.html. Please send your comments or questions on Tox Town to tehip@teh.nlm.nih.gov.

The New York Academy of Medicine / National Library of Medicine Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness provides access to more than 1600 electronic publications related to public health preparedness.

The Current Awareness Update for March 2006, listing newly added resources to the database, is now available at: http://www.phpreparedness.info/update.php

For full database records, including annotations or to search this content by subject area, see: http://www.phpreparedness.info

The New York Academy of Medicine / National Library of Medicine Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness provides access to more than 1550 electronic publications related to public health preparedness.   The March Current Awareness Update listing newly added resources to the database is now available at: http://www.phpreparedness.info/update.php

For full database records, including annotations or to search this content by subject area, please visit: http://www.phpreparedness.info

The CDC is requesting public comments on the agency’s first research agenda, which sets research priorities for the CDC through the year 2015. The public comment period ends on January 15th.

Please visit http://www.cdc.gov/od/ophr/cdcra.htm to view the report.

The National Library of Medicine, in collaboration with the University of Michigan Public Health Library & Informatics Division and Partners in Information Access for the Public Health Workforce, announces the release of the Public Health Information and Data Tutorial. This online tutorial, at http://phpartners.org/tutorial/, is a new tool designed to help the public health workforce effectively locate and use health information.