Ontology-Based Approach to the Discovery of Human Health and Environmental Risks Assessment

The Global ENvironmental ASsessment Information System (GENASIS) is a system developed by the Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment and the Institute of Biostatistics and Analyses at the Masaryk University in Brno. Using the IT tools which have been developed in the FP7 project Tagging Tool based on a Semantic Discovery Framework (TaToo), the GENASIS project aims to set up a semantic web solution to close the discovery gap which prevents a full and easy access to environmental resources on the web. The aim of the GENASIS project is to compile discovered and validated data on persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including their properties, sources, long-term levels, lifetimes, transport mechanisms, effects and risks; these data have been scattered across various institutions and ministries. The project will provide tools for the visualization, analyses and interpretation of these data, and will make it possible to assess environmental and human risks, or to model the fate of these toxic compounds. It can be used to facilitate the discovery, integration and analysis of environmental data in cancer-related risk studies. POPs were chosen as a model because of their persistence, bioaccumulation potential and genotoxicity. The paper introduces GENASIS and its analytical tools connected with TaToo that significantly enhance comprehensive discovery, tagging and understanding of information resources about the fate of POPs in the environment and their impacts on ecosystems and the human population.