Users' brochures have been developed to lead
you through step-by-step procedures for viewing the
data and for directly entering and editing data. These
include Using (he NATICH Data Base and Entering
Data into the NATICH Data Base.
How Do I Obtain Access to the Clearinghouse?
The National Air Toxics Information Clearing-
house was primarily designed for State and local
agencies. The Clearinghouse is also available for use
by the public. Access to Clearinghouse information
is as follows:
State/local agencies:
NATICH data base - through EPA Regional
Offices listed on back of this brochure*
All reports, newsletters - free, contact the
Clearinghouse staff.
Public:
NATICH data base - through the National
Technical Information Service (NTIS) at
(703)487-4807*
Newsletters - free, contact the Clearing-
house staff.
All reports - may be purchased from the
National Technical Information Service at
(703)487-4650, or from Radian Corporation
at (512)454-4797, ext. 5224.
*The NATICH data base contacts in the
EPA Regional Offices or NTIS will arrange
for you to receive a user ID (a 3-letter iden-
tifier for the National Computer Center
(NCC) and a 4-letter account code. This will
take about 2 weeks from the time you call.
After receiving your user ID and ac-
count, you must call the Clearinghouse
staff to obtain authorization for use of the
system. This process just takes a short time.
The Clearinghouse staff will also help you
with any questions or problems that you
may have.
For more information on Clearinghouse or the
NATICH data base, contact:
EPA Regional Office Air Toxics Contacts
Region
II
III
IV
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
OR:
Contact
MaryBeth Smuts
(617)565-3280
Alison Devine
(212)264-2517
Israel Milner
(215)597-9090
Stuart Perry
(404)347-2864
Xuan-Mai Tran
(312)886-6043
Tom Driscoll
(214)655-7223
Wayne Kaiser
(913)551-7603
Rob Corey
(303)293-1759
Michael Stenburg
(415)556-5271
Elizabeth Waddell
(206)442-8578
FTS 835-3280
FTS 264-2517
FTS 597-9090
FTS 347-2864
FTS 886-6043
FTS 255-7223
FTS 276-7603
FTS 330-1759
FTS 556-5271
FTS 399-857°
The Clearinghouse Staff
Pollutant Assessment Branch, MD-13
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
(919)541-0850 FTS 629-0850
Have an Air Toxics
Question?
NATIONAL AIR TOXICS
INFORMATION CLEARINGHOUSE
Printed on recycled paper
EPA
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The National Air Toxics
Information Clearinghouse
Has Answers
You may work for a State or local air quality
agency and are participating in the development of
an air toxics control program. Your agency is in-
terested in regulating PCB emissions. You may
wonder, have other agencies regulated this pollutant?
How can this pollutant be monitored?
Or perhaps you are with an agency that has an
established air toxics program. You have specific
questions about the control technology for a par-
ticular source of a pollutant. What decisions have
been made by other agencies on similar sources?
What pollutants are emitted from these kinds of
sources?
A valuable information source can help you find
the answers to these and other air toxics questions.
The National Air Toxics Information Clearinghouse
is designed to make it easier for Federal, State, and
local agencies to exchange information about air tox-
ics and development of air toxics control programs.
Why a Clearinghouse?
For many reasons, decision-making on toxic air
pollutants is a complex and difficult task for all
government agencies. This is a relatively new effort;
there are many pollutants and many sources, it is
often hard to obtain data in a timely manner, and tox-
icity data are often ambiguous.
In developing and implementing air toxics pro-
grams, State and local agencies need information
about what other agencies are doing, what problems
they are encountering, and whom they can contact
with questions. Agencies need information about
regulatory program development, permit decision-
making, ambient air and source emissions monitor-
ing, inventorying emissions data, enforcement
activities, and technical document availability.
To help meet this need, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) established the National Air
Toxics Information Clearinghouse. The State and
Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators
(STAPPA) and the Association of Local Air Pollution
Control Officials (ALAPCO) are working closely with
EPA to ensure that the Clearinghouse is useful to its
intended audience. In addition, State and local agen-
cies have been encouraged to participate throughout
the design, development, and implementation of the
Clearinghouse.
What is a Clearinghouse?
The primary purpose of the National Air Toxics
Information Clearinghouse is to collect, classify, and
disseminate air toxics information submitted by State
and local air agencies, and to make the audience
aware of published air toxics information from EPA,
other Federal agencies, and similar relevant sources.
The Clearinghouse collects information in
several ways, including, sending data collection
forms to all State and local air agencies. An annual
survey of ongoing Federal research and published air
toxics information is also conducted, and special
reports are developed from information in the data
base and from in-depth agency surveys and studies.
Clearinghouse information, available at no
charge to government agencies, is distributed in these
five ways:
• bimonthly newsletters containing information
on State, local, and Federal air toxics programs
and activities, research, agency case histories,
etc.;
• special reports on specific air toxics issues;
• a computerized data base, available at a cost of
about $10-$ 15 per hour of work;
• hardcopy reports of all data contained in the
data base issued on a regular schedule; and
• response to requests for specific information.
What Kinds of Information
Can I Obtain From the Data Base?
The Clearinghouse data base currently contains
two basic categories of information: air pollution con-
trol agency data and citations/abstracts. State and
local agency data includes information submitted by
agencies on:
• general agency facts (including address and
agency contacts),
• regulatory program descriptions,
• acceptable ambient limits,
• permitted facilities,
• source testing data,
• emissions inventories, and
• ambient monitoring.
Citations and abstracts are included for pub-
lished EPA, National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health (NIOSH), and other Federal/inter-
national agency documents such as emissions factors
documents, health assessments, source sampling/
ambient monitoring methodologies and technical
monitoring documents. Ongoing EPA and NIOSH
research projects such as chemical hazard informa-
tion profiles and epidemiology studies also are cited
and abstracted.
Government agency users also can access in-
dustry emissions data located in EPA's Toxic Release
Inventory Systems (TRIS) directly through the
NATICH data base. TRIS contains information sub-
mitted by industry under the provisions of the
Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know
Act.
How Does the Computerized Data Base Work?
The core of the National Air Toxics Information
Clearinghouse is a computerized data base. It con-
tains all of the information collected by the Clear-
inghouse, generally indexed according to agency,
pollutant, emission source, and research information.
The data base resides on EPA's IBM mainframe
computer and is designed to be easy to use. Using
your agency's microcomputer or minicomputer, a
modem, and an emulator package, you can have in-
teractive viewing access to all data base information.
Interactive access means that you are able to ask
questions of the data base and receive answers via
your computer terminal. For example, you might ask
the data base for all source emissions data that have
been collected for the pollutant, captan. Or you might
want to know how many States have regulated
acrylonitrile and who the contact people are in each
of these States. Answers to these and hundreds of
other questions can be obtained quickly, easily, and
inexpensively.
In addition, authorized State and local personnel
may directly enter and edit data in the Clearinghouse
for their agencies.
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