Environmental Risk Assessment Reports - Chapter 23

CHAPTER 23 Scientific Library Research for Risk Assessment Kathy Malec and David A. Belluck CONTENTS I. Introduction.................................................................................................447 II. Library Resources.......................................................................................448 A. Electronic Media...........................................................................448 B. Surfing the Net for Risk Assessment Data ..................................449 C. Hard Copy.....................................................................................452 III. Selected Environmental Information Sources............................................455 IV. Conclusion..................................................................................................455 I. INTRODUCTION Library research is one of the most important factors in the development of a successful risk assessment. Modern environmental research libraries contain jour-nals, reference books, government documents, and CD-ROMs (containing important guidance documents, laws, and databases). They allow access to resident or on-line public and commercial technical databases, and library holdings around the nation. Documents not immediately available on research library shelves can usually be quickly obtained via interlibrary loan requests. Library staff are indispensable guides through the sometimes bewildering array of hard copy and electronic media resources. They understand the strengths of the different resources that are integral to their mission. For example, public libraries, especially larger libraries, contain basic reference works, directories, and indexes to scientific literature. A number are also depositories for a variety of federal govern-ment documents. University/college libraries contain a more substantial amount of 447 © 2001 by CRC Press LLC 448 A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT REPORTS detailed chemical, environmental, and legal information because they support teach-ing programs and research. Federal, state, and local government agencies support numerous technical libraries. Many federal agencies and their field components maintain libraries. For example, EPA has libraries in Washington, D.C., in many of its regional offices, and in various EPA laboratories around the country. This type of arrangement is mirrored by other federal agencies. In addition, small but important library collections may be held in hard copy, microfiche, or electronic form by government agency division, sections, bureaus, or offices. Depending on the orga-nization of the state government, there may be pollution control, natural resources, health department, or other state libraries containing information needed for risk assessment research. Many city or county governments have substantial environ-mental programs with a library or collection of materials helpful for risk assessment research. The type of library needed varies with the focus and technical rigor of a risk assessment report. II. LIBRARY RESOURCES A. Electronic Media Risk assessors and risk assessment project teams use library resources to define the risks associated with environmental releases and known media contamination. They want the most recent data available in order to ensure the usefulness of their risk report and findings. At the same time, they need to build a large body of information of historical, technical, and policy information that will be used in the risk assessment report. After defining the level of scientific rigor needed to answer their questions, risk researchers head for the technical library to begin their work. An important first step in any risk assessment project is to confer with technical librarians about a given research problem. These professionals can save the researcher considerable time in finding answers to their problems by acting as a guide to library resources. In many cases, technical librarians are also trained to perform computer database searches. Modern libraries offer many services and data sources that are not obvious to the researcher and can differ significantly among libraries. Risk assessment researchers need to determine the types of data they require to perform their risk assessment. Will general publications for lay audiences suffice or will highly technical publications targeted at a narrow band of specialists be required? Does the researcher need publications from a geographic region, a partic-ular language, or from a particular time period? Is historical data or cutting edge data needed? Answers to these questions will determine the types of library resources a researcher will need to obtain and will help a technical librarian to focus their suggestions for your research. One of the most powerful tools currently available to risk assessment researchers is the computer database search. For many researchers, this type of search has replaced handsearching abstracting service hard copies still found in most technical libraries. Whether they are resident on CD-ROMs or via telephone connections to © 2001 by CRC Press LLC SCIENTIFIC LIBRARY RESEARCH FOR RISK ASSESSMENT 449 remote computer sites, computer database searches offer the researcher a way to scan the world’s literature. Searching languages used by computer databases can range from simple logic to highly stylized syntax that must be precisely followed. Selection of single or multiple key words to use in a computer database search is a critical initial step in data acquisition. Using dioxin as an example, a researcher might match the key word dioxin (or dioxins) to the media of concern (e.g., ground-water, soil, air), human or environmental health, or a specific organism. Computer databases allow the user to combine words to expand the scope of a search or to limit the number of possible data sources that would contain a specific combination of key words. Many libraries maintain computer accessible databases at no cost to users. These same libraries may also have access to government or commercial databases that operate on a pay as you go basis. The more complex the search the more it costs to run. There are a great many databases available to the risk assessment researcher. There are so many that contain environmental information, in fact, that it would be an advantage to the researcher to learn about the variety available. An excellent survey of the breadth available is Environment Online: The Greening of Databases (Eight Bit Books, Wilson, CT, 1992). The book was originally published as a series of three articles in Database magazine. It includes a number of other columns published in Database and Online magazines, as well as chapters on environmental information in general interest, scientific and technical, and business and regulatory databases; a list of environmental terms and phrases; search tips; and strategies for locating legislative materials, legal literature, and information from the Federal Register. It aids the database searcher in choosing databases to search, and then may also help the risk researcher evaluate information located during a database search. Table 1 presents a summary of available databases, vendors, ease of use, cost, and helpful and explanatory notes. There are numerous and ever-increasing numbers of private and public databases available commercially as on-line systems or as CD-ROMs. One of the best com-pilations of these services can be found in Environment Online. It is often necessary to have indepth training to effectively use a given database. Consult with a reference librarian to determine if you should perform a given database search yourself or with the assistance of a librarian trained and experienced in using a particular database. B. Surfing the Net for Risk Assessment Data The Internet has become a key source of toxicological and other data used in risk assessment. Risk assessment data on the Internet can come from government and private vendors. While finding risk assessment related sites is not difficult, deter-mining which key terms will access important sites can be difficult. Search engines (e.g., Yahoo, Lycos, Magellan, Excite, and Alta Vista) are used to find risk assessment related sites. These are sites where typing in key terms (e.g., toxicology, risk assess-ment) and hitting enter will result in a database search and display of sites which match your terms. Each search engine has its own strength and weaknesses and should be evaluated by the user for his or her own purposes. Once a search engine has produced its listing of sites, clicking on their icons or names will result in the © 2001 by CRC Press LLC 450 A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ENVIRONMENTAL RISK ASSESSMENT REPORTS Table 1 U.S. EPA Environmental Information Documents Document /Source Environmental Criteria and Assessment Office, ECAO-Cin, 26 Martin Luther King Drive, Cincinnati, OH 45268. Environmental Information Management: A State Resource Guide, Information Sharing Branch, Information Management and Services Division, Office of Information Resources Management (PM-211D), U.S. EPA, Washington, D.C. 20460. Environmental Law: A Selective, Annotated Bibliography and Guide to Legal Research, May 1993, Library Management Series, EPA 220-B-93-009. Environmental Monitoring Assessment Program (EMAP), 401 M Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20460. EPA Locator. EPA Telephone Directory (EPA Headquarters Telephone Directory- WITS Edition). Ground-Water Research Technical Assistance Directory. Guide to Key Environmental Statistics in the U.S. Government, Center for Environmental Statistics, Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation, U.S. EPA, 410 M Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20460. Health Effects Summary Tables (HEAST). Information Systems Inventory (ISI). Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). National Computer Center (NCC), Research Triangle Park, NC 27711. Contents/Services Prepares human health-based risk assessment documents and conducts toxicology research. Serves as focal point for the collection, summarization, evaluation, and assessment of toxicology data for environmental pollutants. Call 513-569-7531. Brief compilation of environmental information sources. An outstanding reference guide to resources in environmental law. Provides framework for integrating existing and new environmental data. Supplies environmental data to EPA’s Center for Environmental Statistics. Call 202-260-7238 for assistance. Call 202-260-2090 for U.S. EPA employee telephone numbers. This indispensable document contains telephone numbers for U.S. EPA regional and field components. Call GPO at 202-260-2118 to order the latest edition. Contact Office of Research and Development, Washington, D.C. for latest edition. Programs generating key environmental statistics. Call 202-260-3726. Provides summary tables of toxicology data, some of which may be on the IRIS system. Contact NTIS at 703-487-4650 or 800-336-4700. Computerized inventory of EPA data systems. Updated summaries of more than 500 EPA data systems. Available through NTIS or EPA libraries. Up-to-date health risk and EPA regulatory information for selected chemicals. For many regulatory agencies, IRIS data supersedes all other data sources. Available via computer hookup. IRIS user support at 513-569-7254. Most of EPA’s mission critical data systems reside at this facility. For information concerning access to these databases call 800-334-2405 or 919-541-7862. © 2001 by CRC Press LLC SCIENTIFIC LIBRARY RESEARCH FOR RISK ASSESSMENT 451 computer opening up the home page of the selected site. From this point it is a matter of exploring the site, clicking on each offered subject, or using a site search engine to narrow the list of possible pages to be individually evaluated by the user. There are several excellent sites offered by U.S. government agencies. They include the ATSDR and U.S. EPA websites. Many of the publications listed by these sites can be downloaded to a personal computer, for example from the U.S. EPA’s on-line library service, http://cave.epa.gov. Many of the databases listed in these sites are searchable and the information sources or references they list are readable and can be downloaded. Examples of what these two sites offer for risk assessment projects are listed below. 1. ATSDR (http://atsdr1.atsdr.cdc.gov:8080/atsdrhome.html) · HazDat, ATSDR’s Hazardous Substance Release/Health Effects Database · ToxFAQs, short, easy to read summaries about hazardous substances excerpted from ATSDR Toxicological Profiles · Public Health Statements, easy to read summaries of many hazardous sub-stances · A Primer on Health Risk Communication Principles and Practices, a practical guide for effectively communicating health risk information to the general public · Cluster Version 3.1, PC/DOS software to help researchers determine the statis-tical significance of a disease cluster · Access to the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESN) Gateway, a way to obtain datasets from other organizations, containing environmental, earth science, and global change information · Case Studies in Environmental Medicine, an excellent series of documents that relate chemical exposures to human disease · Information Center Bookmarks to Web Resources, a comprehensive listing of extremely useful computer accessible information sources for risk assessors · Electronic links to the Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and U.S. EPA 2. U.S. EPA (http://www.epa.gov/epahome/index.html) · Rules, regulations, and legislation · U.S. EPA publications · Environmental test methods and guidelines · EPA datasytems and software · Finding EPA information libraries, hotlines, and information locators Each program office has its own home page from which information can be accessed. For example, persons working on pesticide risk analyses can access the Office of Pesticide Programs and obtain the following types of information: 1. Reregistration Eligibility Decisions (REDs) and RED fact sheets 2. The “Rainbow Report” on pesticide reregistration review status of individual pes-ticides 3. Pesticide (re)registration progress reports 4. Special Review Reports 5. Environmental Federal Register Notices © 2001 by CRC Press LLC ... - tailieumienphi.vn