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Environmental Pollution
Including Environmental Health

Web resources in environmental pollution and environmental health, particularly for the Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania area.

Library resources: Pollution
See also Brownfields, Recycling, and Water Quality.

Pittsburgh Region

  • The Air & Waste Management Association, Allegheny Mountain Section
    http://www.ams-awma.org/
    Promoting better understanding of problems in the fields of air and water pollution and waste management and providing a means for exchanging information towards resolving those problems.
  • Allegheny County Health Department
    http://www.achd.net/
    Includes a section on Environment that covers air pollution, solid waste management and public drinking water.
  • Citizens Against Litter
    http://www.citizensagainstlitter.org/
    Created in 2005, Citizens Against Litter is a loosely connected group of Pittsburgh residents and merchants who are passionate about picking up litter in their neighborhoods.

  • Collaborative on Health and the Environment in Pennsylvania (CHE-Penn)
    http://home.comcast.net/~che-penn/
    CHE-Penn is a regional affiliate of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, an active network of organizations and individuals sharing the basic goal of improving human health by reducing exposure to toxicants in our bodies and the environment.
  • Community Lead Education And Reduction (CLEAR) Corps: Pittsburgh
    http://www.clearcorps.org/pittsburgh.htm
    Part of the AmeriCorps National Service Network, CLEARCorps Pittsburgh is dedicated to reducing the risk of lead poisoning for children living in low-income housing.
  • GASP: Group Against Smoking and Pollution
    http://www.gasp-pgh.org/
    A citizen's group working to prevent air pollution on local, state, and national levels since its creation in 1969.

  • Healthy Home Resources
    http://www.healthyhomeresources.org/
    Healthy Home Resources was created to address the rise in illnesses caused or complicated by the presence of indoor environmental hazards and is the only environmental health organization in Allegheny County that equips individuals and families with the knowledge, support and tools needed to reduce exposure to indoor environmental hazards.
  • PA CleanWays, Allegheny County Chapter
    http://www.pacleanways.org/allegheny/
    A nonprofit environmental organization that helps people and their communities clean up mountains of trash from PA lands and waters through a local road, stream, and area adoption program that complements the state's Adopt-A-Highway program. The Allegheny County chapter was formed in September, 2000, to empower Allegheny County and City of Pittsburgh residents to eliminate illegal dumping and littering in their communities.
  • Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities
    http://www.cleancities-pittsburgh.net/
    Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities provides information on alternative fuel vehicles, grants available for purchasing an alternative fueled vehicle, and air quality in the Pittsburgh region.
  • Rockefeller University (NY) Case Study: "Evaluating Environmental Equity in Allegheny County"
    http://phe.rockefeller.edu/comm_risk/commrsk3.html
    A community risk study by Theodore S. Glickman from the Program for the Human Environment (1994).
  • Smoke Free City
    http://www.smokefreecity.org/
    Join the effort to make Pittsburgh restaurants smoke-free
  • Southwest Pennsylvania Ozone Action Partnership
    http://www.dep.state.pa.us/aq_apps/aqpartners/forecast.asp?vargroup=sw
    A coalition of businesses, governments, community groups and individuals that educates the public about the dangers of ground-level ozone and encourages people to take voluntary actions to reduce their contributions to air pollution. You will find an ozone forecast on their web page.
  • Southwest Pennsylvania Household Hazardous Waste Task Force
    http://www.swpahhw.org/
    As a result of an exploratory meeting held at Carnegie Mellon University in January of 2002 the Southwestern PA Household Hazardous Waste Task Force was formed to fill the need to secure funding, organize events and create a partnership of individuals representing governmental, private and public organizations.

  • Superfund Sites
    • Lindane Dump Site (EPA)
      http://epa.gov/reg3hwmd/super/sites/PAD980712798/
      Information on this Superfund site located in Harrison Township, 20 miles northeast of Pittsburgh from the Environmental Protection Agency's Hazardous Site Cleanup Division for Region 3, Pennsylvania.
    • Lindane Dump/ALSCO Park Superfund Site
      Information from AKvalley.com about the cleanup of this EPA National Priorities List site, one of the nation's most serious uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites identified for possible long-term cleanup action under the Superfund program. Located in Harrison Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
  • The Tireless Project
    http://www.tirelessproject.org/
    A project begun in 2003 by the Three Rivers Rowing Association to clean up the riverbanks of the upper Ohio River watershed. Originally conceived as an effort to remove tires from the rivers, the group also cleans up much other debris.

Pennsylvania

  • Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful
    http://www.keeppabeautiful.org/
    An affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful is alliance of Government, Business, & Community Groups working to keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, through cleanup and litter control, waste handling and beautification.
  • Litterbug.org
    http://www.litterbug.org/
    Pennsylvania litter resource center from the Pennsylvania Resources Council.
  • PennEnvironment
    http://www.pennenvironment.org/
    A consumer action group advocating for clean air, clean water and open spaces.
  • PA CleanWays
    http://www.pacleanways.org/
    PA CleanWays is a non-profit organization that helps people who are ready to take action against illegal dumping and littering in their communities.
  • Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)
    http://www.dep.state.pa.us/
    Includes information on Environmental Cleanup Programs, Recycling Programs, and Solid Waste Management Programs.
  • PA Forest Lands Beautification Program
    http://www.cleanpaforests.org/
    An effort by the State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), PA Cleanways, Professional Recyclers of Pennsylvania (PROP) and the Pennsylvania Environmental Council to clean up illegal dumping in state forests.
  • Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council (POLC)
    http://www.POLCouncil.org/
    The Pennsylvania Outdoor Lighting Council provides advice on solving the problems of glare, light trespass and skyglow caused by light pollution. The goal of the POLC is to reduce light pollution in Pennsylvania by educating the public about the safety and nuisance problems of obtrusive lighting and by recommending actions to improve outdoor lighting.
  • Ray Profitt Foundation
    http://www.rayproffitt.org/
    The Raymond Proffitt Foundation is a public interest non-profit organization concerned with the enforcement of environmental protection laws. It is currently interested in Long Wall Mining.

Nearby States

  • Ohio Citizen Action: WTI Incinerator
    http://www.ohiocitizen.org/campaigns/wti/wti.html
    An action group best known for its work in environment and health and a major opponent to Waste Technologies, Inc. East Liverpool, Ohio, hazardous waste incinerator on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.
  • Von Roll America (WTI)
    http://www.vonrollwti.com/
    Von Roll America, Inc. owns and operates the WTI (Waste Technologies, Inc.) industrial waste treatment plant in East Liverpool, OH.

United States

  • CLU-IN: Hazardous Waste CleanUp Information Website
    Provides information about innovative treatment technologies to the Hazardous Waste community. Managed by the Technology Innovation Office of EPA.

  • Environmental Working Group
    http://www.ewg.org/
    A leading content provider for public interest groups and concerned citizens who are campaigning to protect the environment. Includes studies on the safest cosmetics.

  • EPA: Environmental Protection Agency
    • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), MidAtlantic Region (3)
      Serving Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia
    • AIRLinks
      Current news from the Office of Air and Radiation of the Environmental Protection Agency.
    • EPA: Mercury
      In the U.S., coal-fired power plants are the biggest source of mercury emissions to the air, where the concentrations are usually low and of little direct concern. When they enter the water, however, they build up in fish where they are then ingested by people.
  • Household Products Database
    http://hpd.nlm.nih.gov/
    This database from the National Library of Medicine allows you to find out what's in common household products (automobile, home cleaning, home maintenance, personal care, pesticides, garden, hobbies and crafts) and what are the potential health effects, and other safety and handling information.
  • Mercury Policy Project
    The Mercury Policy Project (MPP) is a project of the Tides Center formed in 1998 to raise awareness about the threat of mercury contamination.
  • NIEHS: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
    http://www.niehs.nih.gov/
    NIH institute for basic research on environment-related diseases.
  • Noise Pollution Clearinghouse
    a national non-profit organization which seeks to raise awareness about noise pollution and reduce it.
  • Phytoremidiation
    Using trees, grasses and other plants to clean our environment. From Great Plains/Rocky Mountain Hazardous Substance Research Center at Kansas State Univeristy.

  • The Scorecard
    http://www.scorecard.org/
    A chemical information service provided by the Environmental Defense Fund to help you find chemical polluters in your community. Type in your zip code to identify the pollutants in your area.

International