Finding published data on substances

There are numerous sources of published data on chemical substances, including:

• Chemical textbooks
• Regulator’s online inventories
• Commercial online inventories
• Scientific papers
• Safety Data Sheets

Chemical textbooks

Chemical textbooks often include basic physical and chemical information on substances which can be useful for classification purposes, and information on chemical reactions and storage hazards which are useful for SDS authoring.  These include data books such as:

• CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, https://www.amazon.co.uk/CRC-Handbook-Chemistry-Physics-97th/dp/1498754287/ 
• Merck Index, available online (to subscribers) at https://www.rsc.org/merck-index
• Handbook of Environmental Properties of Organic Chemicals, http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470171723.html
• Brethericks Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brethericks-Handbook-Reactive-Chemical-Hazards/dp/0081009712/

Regulators’ online inventories

Regulators’ online inventories are free to access.

If you are trying to classify a substance which has not been registered for REACH, but which is similar to one or more registered substances, the REACH dossier for that substance may be useful, see https://echa.europa.eu/information-on-chemicals/registered-substances .

For substances where there is no ECHA data, PubChem, which is run by the USA government, may provide some information, see https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ .  Pubchem references a variety of other databases.

The USA National Library of Medicine publishes ToxNet, which holds toxicological information on substances, see https://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/ .  Like Pubchem, it also references other databases.

Commercial online inventories

There are several commercial online inventories where you purchase a subscription and gain access to information which has been collated, including:

• LOLI database (which is a database of regulatory databases), based in the USA , see https://www.chemadvisor.com/portfolio/loli-database/
• Chemtrac database, based in the UK, see https://www.chemtracglobal.com/

TT Environmental note: this information is included for reference and does not imply any recommendation of these services. We have not used any of these paid-for services ourselves.

Scientific papers

A google search (other search engines are available) on the substance name, or the substance and eg aquatic toxicity can bring up valuable information.

There is also a special search called “google scholar”, which can be accessed at https://scholar.google.co.uk/ , which searches for scientific papers for you.

Note that some scientific papers are free to read, but many, particularly the most recent, may need to be paid for (unless your organisation has a subscription to that publisher, or you have access to the paper e.g. through membership of a professional body).

Safety Data Sheets

Non-CLP Safety Data Sheets can be a useful source of data which is usable for CLP classification, see https://ttenvironmenta.wpengine.com/clp-knowledgebase/using-data-from-non-clp-safety-data-sheets/ .