From the EPA’s website:

Green chemistry consists of environmentally friendly, sustainable chemicals and processes whose use results in reduced waste, safer outputs, and reduced or eliminated pollution and environmental damage. Green chemistry encourages innovation and promotes the creation of products that are both environmentally and economically sustainable.

Introduction to the Concept Of Green Chemistry http://www.epa.gov/greenchemistry/

Pocket is a freely available App for iPad and iPhone. Similar to bookmarking a web page, but you don’t need an Internet connection to view the contents. Use Pocket when you discover an interesting article, video or web page, but don’t have time to view it. Once it’s in Pocket, it’s on your phone, tablet, or computer. You can read an article during a flight, see a web page while you wait in line, or watch a video while relaxing at home; all without an Internet connection.

From: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Daily Digest Bulletin

National “Documerica” Environmental Photo Exhibit Comes to National Archives at Kansas City

The National Archives at Kansas City, in cooperation with EPA Region 7, will open EPA’s “Documerica” exhibit of photographs depicting environmental conditions of the past and present beginning May 16, 2012. The display’s visit to Kansas City is the seventh stop in a national tour and will be open through May 31, 2012.

From its development in 1971, “Documerica” became the United States’ first serious pictorial examination of the environment. The project collected more than 15,000 images, documenting the environmental and human conditions of this country when EPA was starting its mission. The idea was to visually record the difference in conditions in later years, providing the public with a measurement of progress made to accomplish goals set by Congress.

Forty years later the project was rediscovered with the help of National Archives. “State of the Environment” launched Earth Day 2011 as an opportunity for the public to participate and engage in a modern revitalization of Documerica. There are more than 1,900 new images that have been submitted to EPA through Flickr.

The EPA photo project will continue accepting submissions through the end of 2013. Public entries will be considered for a larger exhibit of both projects set for March-September 2013 at the U.S. National Archives’ Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery in Washington, D.C.

The National Archives at Kansas City is one of 15 facilities nationwide where the public has access to Federal archival records. It is home to historical records dating from the 1820s to the 1990s created or received by Federal agencies in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Visit http://www.archives.gov/central-plains

WHERE: National Archives at Kansas City, 400 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, Mo. 64108

I recently attended the 2012 Annual Toxics Release Inventory Conference in Washington, D.C. Why, you ask, did I attend such a conference? The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) is part of the TOXNET suite of databases hosted by the National Library of Medicine, and TOXNET is one of the classes that the National Library of Medicine Training Center teaches. There were approximately 260 attendees, who primarily worked for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), either in D.C. or in one of the ten regional offices around the country.

EPCRA, the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act of 1986, launched the creation of the Toxics Release Inventory. EPCRA was created to help communities and emergency planners prepare for situations that involve hazardous substances. TRI is the public view of the reporting required by industries that deal with any of the 682 chemicals named in EPCRA.

EPCRA has contributed to the reduction of accidents and exposures to hazardous chemicals by shining a light on what is being transported through communities. This, in turn, has led some industries to begin using less hazardous chemicals. EPCRA has been called the largest neighborhood watch program in the United States. TRI helps you identify the right questions to ask when you are concerned about your environment.

Who uses TRI data?
TRI is used by a very diverse audience that includes:
Community Planners
Fire Departments
Emergency Responders
Economists
State and local governments
Academics
Industry
Concerned Citizens
Scientists
Public Health Administrators
Policy Analysts

In 2011, the EPA launched an initiative to partner with colleges and universities to encourage use and evaluation of TRI data and to work with local community groups to apply the data. One goal of this initiative is to improve reporting compliance by companies who are required to report and to promote pollution prevention. The EPA is creating a TRI Starter Kit to facilitate work in communities. This is due out in July 2012.

Just as an aside, gas mileage is the number one term entered into the EPA search box.

Additional Resources

Learn about EPCRA: http://www.epa.gov/oem/content/epcra/index.htm
Environmental information for your area: http://www.epa.gov/myenvironment/
Search across multiple EPA databases: http://www.epa.gov/enviro/
Pollution in Your Community www.scorecard.org http://goo.gl/DEo5d
Stewardship Action Council; a wide range of organizations committed to the responsible stewardship of earth’s resources. www.stewardshipaction.org http://goo.gl/PsP3O
Cleanups in My Community http://goo.gl/g40Kp

“Infographics” or “information graphics” represent data, information, or knowledge in a visually appealing format.  Infographics include attractive images to represent ideas, and may also include data visualizations.  Two free online tools can help create infographics:  Visual.ly and Easel.ly (currently in beta).  Visual.ly also lets users share their infographics, so you can explore the visualizations that others have created.  Easel.ly has a number of pre-made themes and pre-made design elements, so you don’t have to start from scratch to build an infographic.

Owners or operators of facilities that have 10,000 pounds or more of materials designated in the regulations as “hazardous chemicals,” including propane, or smaller quantities1 of “highly hazardous substances,” as designated and specified in the regulations, must prepare and file annual reports with the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC), Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC), and affected local emergency response agencies, such as fire departments, prior to March 1 each year.

A major change is coming to PubMed® soon:  a filters sidebar will replace the limits page.  For details, view the NLM Technical Bulletin article dated May 2, 2012.

A blog post written by Brian Bennett, a biology teacher in the public school system, talks about flipping a classroom for the first time; Flipping, as we have written about in the NTC blog, assigns the cognitively heavy portion of coursework for students to work on outside of the classroom, and then when they meet with the teacher again, students work on problems or homework with the teacher present. Mr. Bennett says to be prepared to see some less than wonderful evaluations from the students as they are introduced to the new format.

Read his blog post at: http://www.brianbennett.org/blog/ugly-learning/

Do you give presentations using PowerPoint, Word and PDFs? Do you sometimes need to show multiple file types during one particular presentation? If you answered yes to these questions, then SlideDog may work for you. SlideDog lets you add your presentation files to a “playlist” where you can just click on the file name to move between files. When you click, the file changes and the audience will not see the behind-the-scenes change between programs.

SlideDog is currently in Beta and it requires a (free) download.

Follow this link to read more about SlideDog and to give it a try:

http://goo.gl/Kix81

One challenge with online classes is that instructors never know if participants are actually “present.”  It’s easy for participants to “multitask” by checking e-mail or surfing the web during the session.  A simple way to find out if participants are giving the session their full attention is to ask them!  At a recent webinar that I attended, the instructors asked participants at the end of the class to rate “how present you were able to be during this session.”  The results can then be correlated with other evaluation measures.