Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Making It Look Good: Tox Town
A Farm neighborhood is the newest addition to Tox Town, a Web-based
introduction to environmental health risks and toxic chemicals. Tox
Town
(http://www.toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/farm/ ) invites visitors to explore a
farm to learn about environmental health issues related to
agricultural waste, drinking water quality, air pollution, pests, and
farm animals.
Tox Town is a project of the Specialized Information Services Division
of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.
The site’s target audience is high school, college, and graduate
students; educators; and the interested public. Macromedia Flash
Player is required for best viewing; a text-only version is available.
Comment:This is pure regulatory technology, high gloss, accept the waste, high cost
web site to convince you the consumer that something substantive is being
done to protect your health interests. If you want to see how much the
regulators really care about chemicals (regardless of where they are found),
research the Toxics Act that was supposed to have caused the vetting of
thousands of chemicals years ago. There is an abysmal record of exposing the
toxigenic and mutagenic qualities of the chemicals covered under the act.