RE: Databases
- Archived: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 14:51:00 -0400 (EDT)
- Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 13:34:08 -0400 (EDT)
- From: Rich Puchalsky <rpuchalsky@att.net>
- Subject: RE: Databases
- X-topic: Information
Steve Taylor writes:
"I could go on for a long, long time. The RTKNET databases are one better model, as is the EDF scorecard."
I'm glad you think so. For those who haven't heard about these things, both RTK NET and the EDF Scorecard are Web sites run by nonprofit groups that provide public access to EPA data.
If EPA's Envirofacts and other Web sites are there, why are the non-EPA sites RTK NET and Scorecard still there and still used? Well, they do things that EPA doesn't want to do.
RTK NET presents data in a wide range of formats, varying from human-readable to database loadable. If you want to get complete information for your city that you can put into an Excel spreadsheet, you can get it there, but not from Envirofacts, unless they recently changed things. RTK NET also saves information that EPA deletes.
EDF Scorecard links its data to all sorts of chemical health effect information, so that you can find out what problems chemicals are likely to cause, or search for pollution that causes specific types of problems.
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