INFORMATION RESOURCES FOR CHEMICAL TOXICOLOGY AND REGULATION

During the last three decades, there has been an overwhelming increase in scientific and technical information. This information increase has heralded an age of unprecedented advancements in our knowledge about the toxicological sciences and the agents, particularly chemicals, that have been evaluated for the induction of untoward biological activity. Much of the information published is stored in computers in various forms for subsequent use and analysis. This information base, although and invaluable resource, presents an enormous challenge to those individuals requiring access to specific toxicology information for use in association with regulatory decision making. With large amounts of government funds being devoted to health and environmental research programs, the rate of growth for toxicology literature is expected to increase every year. To organize this growing literature and to make it easily accessible to users, different types of information systems have been developed. This paper focuses on those information systems that in the authors' opinions provide the best opportunity for accessing the toxicology literature for application in assessing potential human health hazards and chemical regulation.