Chemical safety research portal available

Chemists need a wide array of information before doing experimental work in the lab.  To help them find chemical safety information they need more effectively and efficiently, a Chemical Safety Portal was created that searches multiple resources at one time.  Developed in collaboration with Deep Web Technologies, this search site includes 60+ resources. 

While safety data resources and safety data sheets form the core of the collection, eBooks and eJournals are full-text searchable , allowing researchers to find data in reference books or methods and protocols in journal articles.  Citation databases are also included to help find articles and syntheses and reaction databases, most that contain curated information, are also included to help users locate experimental conditions and methods.   Websites from EH&S units at other campuses plus information form the ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board will help users find information such as training materials, standard operating procedures, and lessons learned.  A list of resources in our chemical safety portal are listed below:

• Safety Data Resources: ACToR (Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource), CAMEO Chemicals, Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (Web Information Service), ChemHAT.org, Chemical Safety Database, ChemID Plus Advanced, e-EROS : Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis - Chemical Name, Emergency Response Safety and Health Database, Hazardous Substances Data Bank, INCHEM, International Chemical Safety Cards (ICSC) database, Knovel, NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards, OSHA Occupational Chemical Database, PubChem - Compound Search, Sax's Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials, Sittig's Handbook of Toxic and Hazardous Chemicals and Carcinogens, and WebWISER-Known Substance List.
• Safety Data Sheets: MSDS (CCOHS) and MSDSonline.
• Databases: Engineering Village, Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management, Health & Safety Sciences Abstracts, PubMed, Scopus, TOXLINE Toxicology Bibliographic Information, and Web of Science Core Collection.
• eBooks and eJournals: ACS Publications: ACS Symposium Series, Chemical & Engineering News, CRCnetBASE, eBrary, MyiLibrary, National Academies Press, Patty's Toxicology, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, ProQuest Research Library, RSC Books, RSC Journals, ScienceDirect, Wiley eBooks, and Wiley Online Library.
• Syntheses & Reactions: CAMEO Chemicals, e-EROS : Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis - Chemical Name, Merck Index, Organic Reactions, Organic Syntheses, Reaxys Xcelerate, and Science of Synthesis.
• Websites: ACS DCHAS-L Archives (ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety Listserve), ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety, Berkeley EH&S, Caltech EH&S, Chemical Safety headlines from Google (from DCHAS), Columbia University EH&S, Cornell EH&S, Harvard EH&S, Lab Safety Research Guide, MIT EH&S, Princeton Univ EH&S, Stanford EH&S, U.S. Chemical Safety Board, UC Center for Laboratory Safety, University of Chicago EH&S, University of Wisconsin - Madison EH&S, and Yale EH&S.

Moving soon from prototype to production, this chemical safety portal will be a collaborative effort between the Stanford University Libraries and Stanford's Environmental Health and Safety Unit.  It is possible to search by chemical name, by CAS Registry Number, and by keywords using Boolean Logic and Truncation (wildcard characters).  If a resource contains InChI or SMILES values for a chemical substance, it may be used as a search term too.  Search results can be displayed visually and include Wikipedia's Chemical Box if you search by chemical name or for an element.  Users who are familiar with a resource can go directly to that resource in search results.   It is also possible to set up alerts for topics of ongoing interest.  Please see screenshot of search results below after searching formaldehyde.

Please check it out and let me know what you think.  Are there other resources that you think should be added to the Chemical Safety Search site?  Do you have other suggestions for improving the portal?  Send comments and suggestions to Grace Baysinger (graceb@stanford.edu).