The ToxicDocs dataset and website contain millions of pages of industry documents about lead, asbestos, silica, PCBs, and other toxic substances. This collection includes internal memoranda, emails, slides, board minutes, unpublished scientific studies, and other documents that became publicly available through toxic tort litigation.
The resource has been tapped by researchers, journalists, and others exploring a new world of environmental health risk and how it came to be.
In this webinar, one of the ToxicDocs founders, Dr. Merlin Chowkwanyun, gave an overview of this continuously growing dataset, introducing the interface, explaining the technology behind it, and offering a tour of the searchable content.
The collection is curated by data scientists and researchers at Columbia University's Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health and the City University of New York's Graduate Center. Recent innovations in parallel and cloud computing have made it easier to convert these documents into machine-readable, searchable text.
The discussion was moderated by CHE Science Communications Fellow Haleigh Cavalier.
This webinar is one in a series of conversations related to publicly available industry documents. These conversations may include a variety of opinions and perspectives. Any opinions expressed in these webinars are those of the speakers, and do not necessarily reflect the views of CHE or its partner organizations.
Featured Speaker
Merlin Chowkwanyun, PhD, MPH is Donald Gemson Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences and a core faculty member of the Center for History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. He is also affiliated with the university’s history department and Data Science Institute. His work examines the history of community health; environmental health regulation; racial inequality; and social movement/activism around health. His 2022 book, All Health Politics is Local: Community Battles over Medical Care and Environmental Health, was published as part of a series on Studies in Social Medicine. He is the PI on the National Science Foundation grant supporting ToxicDocs.org. He teaches courses on health advocacy and mixed methods, and in the Mailman Core curriculum, co-teaches the social determinants module.