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EPA MED-DULUTH'S ECOTOX AND ECO-SSL WEB APPLICATIONS
Citation:
Russom, C L., B. P. Kinziger, D. J. Grunwald, AND A. Pilli. EPA MED-DULUTH'S ECOTOX AND ECO-SSL WEB APPLICATIONS. Presented at Society for Risk Analysis 2001 Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, December 2-5, 2001.
Description:
The ECOTOX (ECOTOXicology Database) system developed by the USEPA, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL), Mid-Continent Ecology Division in Duluth, MN (MED-Duluth), provides a web browser search interface for locating aquatic and terrestrial toxicity effects information. This database is useful in developing consistent ecosystem management decisions, and provides a means to cost-effectively collect standardized and critically-needed effects data for a wide variety of ecological risk assessments. A recent addition to the ECOTOX database is the Eco-SSL web application. The Ecological Soil Screening Level (Eco-SSL) work group represents the collaborative effort of a multi-stakeholder workgroup consisting of federal, state, consulting, industry, and academic participants working on the development of scientifically sound, ecologically-based, soil screening levels. EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) in collaboration with EPA's Office of Research and Development has released the Eco-SSL values derived for 23 contaminants of concern and four receptors (terrestrial plants, soil invertebrates, and avian and mammalian wildlife) through EPA's public website. The beta-version of the Eco-SSL web application presents an overview of each contaminant including environmental forms, sources of environmental contamination, background concentrations, mechanisms of toxicity, and essential element status, if applicable. Separate discussion is provided for each receptor group including a comprehensive list of literature evaluated under the effort, summary of data used in deriving Eco-SSL values, and access to the raw data records within EPA's ECOTOX database. The site includes links to all standard operating procedures and guidance documents used in the development of ECOTOX and the derivation of the Eco-SSL values.