University of Maryland Libraries Virtual Presentation Recording: “Toxic Docs and a People’s EPA”

The webinar video recording embedded below was recorded on October 25, 2022.

In this virtual panel presentation in honor of International Open Access Week: Open for Climate Justice, Dr. Jessica Varner (University of Southern California) and Dr. Merlin Chowkwanyun (Columbia University) come together to discuss their unique interdisciplinary research in the intersections of environmental history, public health history, and industrial pollution, and the ways in which their research both relies upon and generates open-access information. The panel is moderated by Dr. Philip Cohen (University of Maryland).  Dr. Varner’s and Dr. Chowkwanyun’s innovative work led to the creation of two resources which will be highlighted during the session. Toxic Docs, a project based at Columbia University and the City University of New York, is a dataset and website that contains millions of pages of once-secret corporate documents about asbestos, polyvinyl chloride, benzene, silica, and lead. A People’s EPA is an extensive website that provides a straightforward public history of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) programs, explains how the EPA works, and provides data and tools for users to explore and track the EPA in greater depth.  The researchers’ passion for making information and data about the environment and industrial pollution openly available can serve as inspirational examples for others who wish to advance climate justice in their communities.

Resources

Direct to ToxicDocs Database

Direct to A Peoples EPA

ToxicDocs Levels the Playing Field for Efforts to Prevent Toxic Exposures (via Columbia News; December 10, 2018)

Research Tools: “What Went on in the Trump EPA? Announcing a New FOIA Archive” (July 7, 2022)

Filed under: Data Files, Libraries, News, Open Access, Patrons and Users, Video Recordings