A California nonprofit has joined the list of environmental groups that are using the Web to distribute information about pollution, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition of San Jose, Calif., unveiled on April 23 a Web site that shows where pollution has occurred in the San Jose area.

The site, which has taken two years to build, is based on about 10 databases from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and several state government sources, the newspaper reports.

Other environmental groups have created similar Web sites. The Environmental Defense Fund's Scorecard site, for example, describes pollution at a variety of locations around the country.

According to the data collected by the San Jose group, pollution in that area has declined since the 1980s.

Shelly Huff, communications director for the American Cancer Society in San Jose, told the newspaper that the public needs be careful in weighing the information. She says exposure to pollution in the environment is less harmful than the things people do to themselves.

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