Tox Town is an interactive guide to commonly encountered toxic substances, your health, and the environment. It uses color, graphics, sounds and animation to convey connections between chemicals, the environment, and the public's health. Tox Town is designed to provide:
- Facts on everyday locations where toxic chemicals might be found
- Information about how the environment can affect human health
- Non-technical descriptions of chemicals
- Links to authoritative chemical information on the Internet
- Internet resources on environmental health topics.
Tox Town helps users explore an ordinary town to identify its common environmental hazards. It can be toured by selecting "Location" or "Chemical" links. Locations, like the school, home and office building, urban setting can be opened for cutaway views and for detailed information about the toxic chemicals that might be found there, as well as for links to environmental health resources. A city scene is also available for exploration:
Tox Town's target audience is students above elementary-school level, educators, and the general public. It is a companion to the extensive information in the TOXNET collection of databases that are typically used by toxicologists and health professionals. Tox Town's chemical and environmental information comes from the TOXNET and MEDLINEplus resources of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), and other authoritative sources. Chemical descriptions are based on TOXNET and other resources and are reviewed by NLM toxicology staff.
Tox Town is a project of the Specialized Information Services Division of the NLM and is part of its mission to address the toxicology and environmental health information needs of the general public. NLM plans to expand Tox Town to include more chemicals and new locations, such as a farming region.
--NLM Fact Sheet
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