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Toxipedia Web Development Services Launched!

Creating websites and marketing tools for the scientific community. We are now accepting clients. Learn more about our services today.

New section on Toxic Chemicals in Household Products! Read our topic overview and explore our links to information on choosing products with safer ingredients!

Would you like to contribute content to Toxipedia? Please read our new Writers Guidelines to get started!

6th Edition of Grow Smart, Grow Safe Released!
Toxipedia is excited to announce the release of the latest edition of Grow Smart, Grow Safe. With environmental and health ratings of 600 pesticides, fertilizers and soil amendments, this publication offers a comprehensive guide to lawn and garden products. The easy-to-use tables organize entries into categories that help you find lawn and garden products least hazardous to your pets and loved ones, wildlife, lakes, streams and groundwater. In addition, tips from regional experts offer simple ways to reduce pest problems without toxics and safely grow a productive, healthy garden.

Staff from Toxipedia and INND evaluated and ranked all 600 products for this guide. Grow Smart, Grow Safe is a project of King County Local Hazardous Waste Management Program, Thurston County, and Oregon Metro.

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New section on ethical considerations! Topics include bioethics, environmental justice, electronic waste (E-waste), Ethical Economics, the Precautionary Principle, and more! Start here!

Featured Articles

By Jack Vanden Heuval

Melamine (CAS No. 108-78-1) is an organic base and a trimer of cyanamide, with a 1,3,5-triazine skeleton. Like cyanamide, it contains 66% Nitrogen by mass and, if mixed with resins, has fire-retardant properties due to its release of nitrogen gas when burned or charred, and it also has several other industrial uses. Melamine was found as a metabolite of the pesticide cyromazine in plants, goats, hens, and rats. Cyanuric Acid (CAS No 108-80-5) is a structural analogue of melamine that may be found as an impurity of melamine. Cyanuric Acid is an Food and Drug Administration-accepted component of feed-grade biuret, a ruminant feed additive. It is also found in swimming pool water as the dissociation product of dichloroisocyanurates used for water disinfection.

By Kaitlin Mallory

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, amended to the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1977, was first passed by Congress in 1948. In 1972, the act underwent major reorganization and expansion, and was placed under the jurisdiction of the newly-formed Environmental Protection Agency(EPA). The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 comprise the bulk of the Clean Water Act in place in the US today, giving the EPA the power to regulate and enforce pollution control in surface water. Specifically, the CWA focuses on keeping water clean for aquatic life, recreation, public water supplies, and industrial/agricultural uses (IPL at New Mexico).

By Sean Foley

2,4-D was developed during WW II at British Rothamsted Experimental Station, by Judah Hirsch Quastel and sold commercially in 1946. 2,4-D was the first widely used systemic or hormone Herbicidesused to control broadleaf plants, ushering in modern weed control in agriculture. Currently, more than 46 million pounds of 2,4-D are applied annually with the global marketplace for the herbicide accounting for more than US$300 million (EPA RED Facts, 2005 and PAN-UK, 1997).


Call for Contributors!

Toxipedia is not merely a website; it is a tool for public health professionals, students, and the public to use to educate one another. There are numerous ways to help build this critical resource. Here are a few specific ways to contribute: