EOH Links
| North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Education and Research Center |
One of the most useful and comprehensive web-sites |
2. Internet addresses for occupational and environmental bodies of the US and Canadian governments.
| Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) | The lead US governmental agency for protecting the health and safety of people and comprised of multiple organizational components, including National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) |
| Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) | US governmental regulatory body that sets and enforces workplace standards, provides technical information and assistance about health hazards and interpretation of occupational health standards. |
| U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | US governmental agency that safeguards the natural environment - air, water, and land. |
| Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) | US governmental agency that monitors the effect on public health of hazardous substances in the environment. |
| National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) | US governmental agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related disease and injury |
| National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) | The mission of NIEHS is to reduce the burden of human illness and dysfunction from environmental causes. |
| Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) | Canada's national center for occupational safety and health information, maintains an inquiries service both in English and French. |
| National Library of Medicine | World's largest medical library and creator of PUBMED, a free bibliographic database |
| Institute of Medicine | An associated organization of The National Academies, created by the US federal government. It is actually a private, non-governmental organization and provides objective authoritative information and advice concerning health and science policy. |
3. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) publications include criteria documents that outline the health hazards of specific occupational exposures. The NIOSH homepage also includes access to several databases including the International Chemical Safety Cards (ICSC) and NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards that summarize health and safety information on chemicals for 'lay' and 'trained' individuals respectively. NIOSH Technical Information Center-2 (NIOSHTIC-2) is a bibliographic database containing references to workplace safety and health literature (abstracts and citations of journal articles). NIOSH certified 'B Reader' listing will make it easy to access the 'B readers' in the various geographic areas for easy referrals for radiographic pneumoconiosis evaluation.
4. Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)-like and carcinogenicity information.
a) General MSDS sites:
| Canada Centre for Occupational Health and Safety |
A keyword searchable MSDS database with 325,000 MSDS |
| Vermont SIRI | A keyword searchable database with 180,000 MSDS |
b) For less technical data:
| CDC/NIOSH/WHO International Chemical Safety Cards (ICSC) | Good for basic understanding of 869 chemicals, not MSDS |
| New Jersey Hazardous Chemical Fact-sheets | Plain English descriptions of common household, workplace and environment chemicals (great for non-chemists) |
| NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards | Source of general industrial hygiene information for workers, employers, and occupational health professionals |
c) For data on carcinogenic potential:
| International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) | Reports on cancer risks to humans by 800 plus chemicals, not MSDS |
| US National Toxicology Program's 10th Report on Carcinogens, US Department of Health and Human Services | Recent updates on substances known and reasonably anticipated to cause lung cancer in humans. |
5. Web-link to 'B Reader' listing' maintained by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH): will make it easy to access the 'B readers' in the various geographic areas for easy referrals
6. Useful Electronic Databases:
a) Constituents of TOXNET Database available without charge from the National Library of Medicine
| Hazardous Substance Data Bank (HSDB) | a factual database of more than 4200 chemicals |
| TOXLINE | Toxicology bibliographic information |
| Toxic Chemical Release Inventory (TRI) | Database from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) containing data on estimated quantities of chemicals released into environment. |
| The Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) | Database from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) containing information on estimated releases to the environment reported by industries of more than 300 toxic chemicals |
b) Other miscellaneous databases
| Hazdat Database | Developed by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, this database provides information on the release of hazardous substances from Superfund sites or from emergency events and on their ill-effects on humans |
| Medscape | Integrated Medical Information and Education tool for physicians |
| PubMed MEDLINE | A service of the National Library of Medicine provides access to over 12 million MEDLINE citations back to the mid-1960's and additional life science journals. It also includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources. |
7. Professional occupational and environmental medicine organizations, with specific emphasis on occupational pulmonary disorders.
| American Thoracic Society (ATS) | Scientific Assembly on Environmental and Occupational Health has a special emphasis on epidemiologic and laboratory approaches |
| American College of Chest Physicians(ACCP) | American College of Chest Physicians(ACCP) |
| American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine(ACOEM) | Lists Board-certified Occupational Medicine physicians |
| Association of Occupational and Environmental clinics(AOEC) | Network of 63 clinics specializing in clinical diagnosis of occupational hazardous substance exposures. Ten Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units (PEHSUs) have been recently set up in the US and one each in Canada and Mexico. |
| American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists(ACGIH) | Offers high quality technical publications in occupational health and safety, including the TLV ® booklet |
8. Standards for Occupational Exposures
| Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has laid down exposure standards including Permissible Exposure Limits | |
| National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has laid down recommendations for occupational safety and health, including Recommended Exposure Limits | |
| American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH) has laid down Threshold Limit Values and Biological Exposure Indices. This database is accessible to members only |
| US Social Security Disability Evaluation | Guidelines for evaluation of respiratory system, including sleep disordered breathing dated February 2002 are listed on pages 15-27. |
| ATS Guidelines for Evaluation of Impairment for Asthma | Offers high quality technical publications in occupational health and safety, including the TLV ® booklet |
| US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Air Quality Standards | Developed by the EPA for Air Quality planning and standards. EPA also maintains the AIRS database: (Aerometric Information Retrieval System), a computer-based repository of information about airborne pollution in the US and various World Health Organization (WHO) member countries. |
| Health Effects Institute | This institute supported jointly by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and industry publishes information on health effects of pollutants from motor vehicles and from other sources in the environment. |
| American Lung Association (ALA) | ALA is the oldest voluntary health organization in the US. It fights lung disease in all its forms, with special emphasis on asthma, tobacco control and environmental health. |
| National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) | The mission of NIEHS is to reduce the burden of human illness and dysfunction from environmental causes. |
| National Center for Environmental Health, Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch at CDC | This branch directs the fight of the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) against respiratory illness associated with air pollution. |
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Table 1: Occupational Health |
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| National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Information and Publications | (800) 356-4674 or (800) 35-NIOSH |
| NIOSH Medical Section/Diagnosis & Treatment | (513) 841-4386 |
| NIOSH Industrial Hygiene | (513) 841-4374 |
| OSHA Regulations | (202) 523-7111 |
| Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) | (800) 668-4284 |
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Table 2: Lung Diseases |
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| Lungline/ National Jewish Hospital | (800) 222-5864 or (800) 222-LUNG |
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Table 3: Pesticide |
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| National Pesticide Hotline | (800) 535-PEST |
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Table 4: Radon |
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| National Radon Hotline | (800) SOS-RADON |
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Table 5: Toxic Substances |
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| Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry | (404) 639-6000 |
| Toxicology Information Response Center | (615) 567-1743/1750 |
| MotherRisk Program | (416) 813-6780 |
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Table 6: Chemical Emergencies: |
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| Chemical Spills Emergency Hotline | (800) 535-0202 |
| EPA Hazardous Waste Hotline | (800) 535-0202 |
