How can physicians become well-informed about ...



Environmental Health Information Resources for Physicians

Center for Healthy Environments & Communities,

University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, 2005

There is a vast and ever-growing array of environmental health information resources available to physicians, many of them Internet-based. Below are a few of the major ones.

Physician training and CME

• ASTDR Case Studies in Environmental Medicine is a series of self-instructional publications designed to increase primary care provider's knowledge of hazardous substances in the environment and to aid in the evaluation of potentially exposed patients. Topics include taking an exposure history, disease clusters, environmental triggers of asthma, etc., as well as specific substances (arsenic, asbestos, benzene, etc.).The Case Studies in Environmental Medicine have been approved for physician CME credit.

• ASTDR Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units (PEHSUs) provide education and consultation for health professionals, public health professionals and others about the topic of children's environmental health.

• American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) Environmental Health Resource Center is a physician portal to environmental health continuing medical education (CME) offerings, information on conferences, workshops, events, publications, and links to organizations and other environmental health education and training resources. 

• Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics has an excellent educational resource library, including a list of occupational and environmental residencies and other training, at

• Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) lists 51 advanced degree programs in environmental health sciences and provides a listing of environmental health resources including annual environmental health conferences

• EnviroDx is a multimedia, case-focused, computer-based learning program on environmental-related diseases. .utah.edu/envirodx/index.html

• Grand Rounds in Environmental Medicine— an archive of clinical cases—is available from EHP.

• National Environmental Education & Training Foundation (NEETF), chartered by Congress in 1990, “ is a private non-profit organization dedicated to advancing environmental education in its many forms”. NEETF’s Pediatric Environmental History Initiative provides a downloadable environmental history form and primer.

• NIEHS maintains a list of health provider training resourcesin environmental health at

• South Texas Environmental Education and Research (STEER) Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio offers a unique month-long immersion course in public health and environmental health issues at the Texas-Mexico border for students and residents in medicine and other health professions.

Local environmental health information

• Obtaining good local environmental health data can be challenging. The Center for Healthy Environments and Communities, with a focus on Western Pennsylvania, describes these issues at

• EPA Where You Live provides local information about toxic releases, air quality, superfund sites etc.

• EPA Environmental Justice Geographic Assessment Tool is at

• Environmental Defense’s Scorecard combines data from numerous sources to provide local pollution reports for counties in the United States.

• Environmental Law Institute provides a free downloadable community environmental health assessment workbook.

• State and local departments of health and environmental protection can also be valuable sources of local information.

Educational resources from government agencies

• Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ATSDR functions include public health assessments of waste sites, health consultations concerning specific hazardous substances, health surveillance and registries, response to emergency releases of hazardous substances, applied research in support of public health assessments, information development and dissemination, and education and training concerning hazardous substances.

• CDC National Center for Environmental Health is at The CDC also has an environmental health home page

• Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) is NIEHS’s free online monthly journal of peer-reviewed research and news on the impact of the environment on human health. The “most valuable” news and research on environemntal health issues are also listed by topic at

• Environmental Potection Agency (EPA) human health main page is at

• MedlinePlus Environmental Health (from the National Library of Medicine and the National Institues of Health) is at

• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), one of 27 Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), conducts basic research on environmental health and environment-related diseases. NIEHS also provides an alphabetical index of environmental health topics 

• Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services lists environmental health resources at

• World Health Organization Children’s Environmental Health is at

Other educational resources

• American Academy of Environmental Medicine focuses on environmentally triggered illness, such as allegies and sensitivities

• American Academy of Pediatrics environmental health page is at

• American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine is at

• American Public Health Association (APHA) is at

• Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) focuses on ecosystem health, human health and sustainable development.

• Center for Environmental Oncology provides fact sheets on environmental causes of cancer at .

• Center for Health and the Global Environment “was founded in 1996 at Harvard Medical School to expand environmental education at medical schools and to further investigate and promote awareness of the human health consequences of global environmental change”.

• Children's Environmental Health Network (CEHN) provides an extensive categorized resource guide.

• Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE) aims to (1) provide accurate scientific information , (2) foster collaborative relationships, and (3) raise the level of public and professional dialogue related to understanding and reducing environmental threats to health. . CHE’s science website tracks emerging scientific evidence on links between diseases, disorders and disabilities and possible environmental causes. . CHE has also produced a spreadsheet that summarizes representative knowledge about links between environmental exposures and human diseases.

• Community Environmental Health Resource Center (CEHRC) ”is a resource to grassroots groups working for social justice in low-income communities around the country”, particularly on hazards posed by substandard housing

• Duke University Occupational and Environmental Medicine has an electronic forum and mailing list as well as an extensive list of resources.

• EnviroLink, a “non-profit organization which has been providing access to thousands of online environmental resources since 1991”, has a website section on Human Health.

• Environmental Health Watch is a not-for-profit public interest organization in Cleveland, Ohio that “provides information, assistance and advocacy to protect and sustain human health and the health of the environment”.

• Environmental Health News is published daily by Environmental Health Sciences, “a not-for-profit organization founded in 2002 to help increase public understanding of emerging scientific links between environmental exposures and human health”.

• National Association of Physicians for the Environment ceased operations in 2000 but still has a number of useful resources on its website, including an article on the environmentally sound physician’s office

• National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) “has been working since 1990 to improve the scientific basis for environmental decisionmaking”. and maintains the National Library for the Environment

• National Environmental Health Association is at

• Physicians for Social Responsiblity has an extensive environmental health program that includes EnviroHealthAction, “a place where the health community can learn and take action”. This website also includes CME opportunities.

• Right-to-Know Network provides free access to numerous databases, text files, and conferences on the environment

• Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) is at

• State Public Interest Research Groups “are a network of independent, state-based, citizen-funded organizations that advocate for the public interest”.

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