Environmental reporters covering health risks from chemical exposure got another tool for doing their jobs March 24, 2010. EPA put online the HERO database, which catalogs scientific articles and studies the agency uses to make its decisions based on risk to health and environment.

Searchable, free, and open to the public online, the database allows reporters to home in on specific chemicals or problems. It contains full citations to over 300,000 scientific articles. In most cases, that includes a full abstract. Full texts may only be available for a charge — as in many cases the scientific journals charge for them.

Journalists looking for full texts may find them at less-than-full cost by working with a research library (which may be able to give you access to services such as EBSCO), such as one at a local university or the National Library of Medicine, [2] which maintains PubMed. [3] Apart from NLM (which is in DC), other federal government research libraries may be of help and near you.

• HERO Database Search Page. [4]
• EPA Release of March 24, 2010. [5]
• Journalists may find EPA's IRIS (Integrated Risk Information System) database a useful adjunct while working with the HERO database. Also online and searchable, IRIS is here. [6]