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How to access information
Jeremy Haliwell of Environmental Data Services.
Speaker at Environmental Assistance conference. Summary: the Internet is an increasingly popular and useful medium for communicating information. This presentation gives an overview of some useful information sources for researching environmental pollution and health issues. The internet has been around for some 30 years, but in the last five years it has become recognised in many parts of the world as an increasingly important method of communication and information publishing. Its phenomenal growth has been helped by the fall in the cost of personal computing, web browsing software which is relatively easy for people to use and the determination of developers to keep the internet open and non-proprietary. On the web, the more you know the more you know how much you don’t know (and didn’t want to!). With such a huge amount of information out there it’s easy to get lost in cyberspace. The aim of this brief talk is give you some practical assistance, to provide you with some ideas for useful Internet sources on pollution/health. News and analysis If you need to monitor current issues in environmental policy or scientific research or to track developments there are a number of online newspapers and journals. Whilst some charge for subscription, many are free, or have some free content. The Environmental News Service (ENS) is a daily free news service covering a wide range of environmental topics across the world. Its web site is updated daily, and you can also opt to receive news bulletins via email. Other specialist news services include Environmental News Network (ENN) and ENDS Environment Daily, which tracks environmental policy developments across the European Union. The Environmental Research Foundation, a US charity, publishes Rachel’s Environment & Health Weekly which covers current pollution and health issues from an NGO and community perspective. You can also check the archives of the well known news organisations such as the BBC and CNN. Research More detailed coverage of scientific research is available via the online editions of established scientific journals, such as New Scientist, Nature, and Environmental Health Perspectives. The BMA’s site includes a facility to search and view its archive of articles from the British Medical Journal. For bibliographic research, the most important database of articles is Medline although this is only available on subscription (for example via the BMA’s site). However the British Library, which maintains a vast repository of published documents has an easy to search library catalogue on the web. If you have a customer account, retrieved references can also be ordered online for delivery within a few days. ‘Official’ information The internet has dramatically improved access to information maintained by governments and their agencies. Although many excuses are still available for denying us access to information, the bureaucratic machine which has hitherto stood in the path of the researcher is fast disappearing as more and more of it can be directly retrieved from the net. A good example is the Environment Agency’s Pollution Inventory - which was launched earlier this year. By entering a postcode, the user can query a public register of chemicals released to the environment by companies within in the selected area. With a few mouse clicks the researcher can find out more details about a substance on the register including some information about environmental and health effects. Before the web site was launched the Agency could expect to receive in the order of 40 enquiries a year for data from the register at its regional offices. In its first week the site received more than 2700 visitors. Texts of bills, acts and statutory instruments which would have required a journey to a HMSO Agent and a charge are now available for free download from the web. The parliamentary report Hansard, a unique source of official data and policy statements, can be freely searched online, along with select committee reports and a wealth of other parliamentary information. Most Government departments now have their own sites, from which you can download or request copies of consultation documents, contact details and press releases~ They can be reached via the main UK government web page. Environmental campaigns Many NGOs both small and large, have taken advantage of the new opportunities offered by the net for communicating directly with a global audience. Campaigners no longer need to rely on attracting the interest of an editor or the expense of an advertising or publicity campaign (although these are still very important, of course, as the web is essentially a passive medium). By directing enquirers to information on the campaign’s web site, time can also be freed up for staff who would otherwise have to repeat the same answers to basic questions. The Oneworld site acts as a one stop shop for information from environment and development NGOs, and includes access to press releases, news reports and other campaigning information. The UNED-UK committee, for example, publishes its monthly newsletter Environment & Health on the web. Friends of the Earth contribute to the site as well as offering a lively web site of their own packed with campaign information. Some enthusiasts have set up information resource sites for fellow campaigners: a good example is FoE’s Paul Mobbs who maintains a vast collection of official documents, news items and campaign briefings on a range of subjects including pollution, health and the law. Corporate information A handy free reference source for company information is Hoovers Online - a searchable directory of vital statistics about major corporations as well as some smaller companies, with country specific websites available. If you’re looking for alternative views of well known companies, try Yahoo’s collection of links to ‘consumer opinion’ campaigns. Many trade associations, for example Eurochior, have set up sites with contact lists, position papers and press releases. Its also worth searching the news sites for company specific stories. Search Engines A brief word about search engines: knowing how to use them effectively is one the most valuable internet skills you can learn. Most of them have a search commands which enable you to specify very precisely what you are looking for, effectively giving you the power something like that of a metal detector when looking for a needle in a haystack!. Some good search engines to try are Alta Vista, Hotbot, Google and Northern Light. To learn about searching techniques click on the engine’s help link, or visit SearchEngineWatch. Beyond search engines Most search engines provide access to millions of web pages but this is still only a small proportion of what’s available. A lot of information is still hidden away in databases, archives and other obscure repositories which the search engines can’t get to. For the intrepid internet researcher, the Direct Search site, although aimed at a US audience, is a key resource for locating this kind of information. Newsgroups and mailing lists can provide a source grassroots information - there are thousands of these discussion forums on every subject under the sun. For example drifters - the pesticide drift discussion group checnet-forum - support and information on environmental health threats to children. sci.environment - the biggest environmental newsgroup with wide ranging discussion uk.environment - concentrates on local issues. You can search newsgroup archives using Deja.com, whilst Liszt.com will help you find mailing lists. References:
Jeremy Haliwell |
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