Skip to Main Content

Environmental Data

What are "toxic substances"? What legislation regulates them?

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) defines what a toxic substance is and outlines who has to report. Under TSCA, the US Environmntal Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to:

  • Require pre-manufacture notification for "new chemical substances" before manufacture
  • Require testing of chemicals by manufacturers, importers, and processors where risks or exposures of concern are found
  • Issue Significant New Use Rules (SNURs) when it identifies a "significant new use" that could result in exposures to, or releases of, a substance of concern
  • Maintain the TSCA Inventory which contains more than 83,000 chemicals. As new chemicals are commercially manufactured or imported, they are placed on the list.
  • Require those importing or exporting chemicals to comply with certification reporting and/or other requirements.
  • Require reporting and record-keeping by persons who manufacture, import, process, and/or distribute chemical substances in commerce.
  • Require that any person who manufactures (including imports), processes, or distributes in commerce a chemical substance or mixture and who obtains information which reasonably supports the conclusion that such substance or mixture presents a substantial risk of injury to health or the environment to immediately inform EPA, except where EPA has been adequately informed of such information. 

Health Effects & Chemical Information

National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals

Produced by: US Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)
Dates of coverage: 1999 to 2016
Geographic coverage: National level
Description: Uses data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), an annual survey from the CDC
Resources include:


International Toxicology Estimates for Risk

Produced by: Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment
Dates of coverage: Most current data available, updated monthly
Geographic coverage: Not applicable
Description: Contains data from multiple national, international, and independent parties offering peer reviewed risk values
Resources include:


Toxic Substances Portal

Produced by: US Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry
Dates of coverage: Most current data available
Geographic coverage: Not applicable
Description: Uses data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), an annual survey from the CDC
Resources include:

Report on Carcinogens 

Produced by: US National Institutes of Health National Toxicology Program
Dates of coverage: October 2014 to current day
Geographic coverage: Local, State and National level
Description: The Report on Carcinogens is a congressionally mandated, science-based, public health document that NTP prepares for the HHS Secretary. This cumulative report currently includes 248 listings of agents, substances, mixtures, and exposure circumstances that are known or reasonably anticipated to cause cancer in humans.

The US Environmental Protection Agency provides health and environmental information on specific chemicals found as a result of base closures, during Superfund clean-ups, and/or related to Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

New Jersey is the home of many petrochemical plants. The Right to Know Hazardous Substance Facts Sheets have been developed for the consumer.

The National Library of Medicine (part of the National Institutes of Health) has developed a strong collection of resources that focus on the effects of chemicals on our health. 

 

Haz-Map® is an occupational health database designed for health and safety professionals and for consumers seeking information about the adverse effects of workplace exposures to chemical and biological agents. The main links in Haz-Map are between chemicals and occupational diseases. These links have been established using current scientific evidence.

Haz-Map shows the diseases linked to each agent and the agents linked to each disease. Agents are chemical such as formaldehyde, or biological such as grain dust. Haz-Map links jobs and hazardous job tasks with occupational diseases and their symptoms.

In Haz-Map, chronic occupational diseases are linked to both jobs and industries, while acute diseases and infectious diseases are linked only to jobs. Cancers are not linked to jobs, industries or findings.

The information in Haz-Map comes from textbooks, journal articles, the Documentation of the Threshold Limit Values (published by ACGIH), and electronic databases such as NLM's ChemIDplus. The author of Haz-Map is Jay A. Brown, MD, MPH, Board Certified in Occupational Medicine.

Disclosing chemical ingredients in products provides essential information throughout the supply chain from raw material supplier to consumers. Infor­mation about the ingredients of products and their health effects allow con­sumers to make better informed choices. The development of this database was initiated in 1994 by DeLima Associates of McLean, Virginia, USA in response to a need for a database (identified by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention), that related household product types, brand names, chemical constituents, health-related information (acute and chronic effects and target organs), and exposure minimization techniques. This database is currently supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Public Health Service, Department of Health & Human Services.

LiverTox® provides up-to-date, unbiased and easily accessed information on the diagnosis, cause, frequency, clinical patterns and management of liver injury attributable to prescription and nonprescription medications and selected herbal and dietary supplements. The LiverTox site is meant as a resource for both physicians and patients as well as for clinical academicians and researchers who specialize in idiosyncratic drug induced hepatotoxicity.