Chemistry
Document delivery service, Infotrieve, offers a database of bibliographic citations and article abstracts. It includes information from more than 54,000 journals and covers disciplines, such as science, technology, medicine and law. Query the database for free. Purchase full-text copies of articles directly from the site. Coverage extends back to 1966.
Joseph P. Hornak, professor of chemistry and imaging science at Rochester Institute of Technology, authors this online book (He calls it an "educational package.") on magnetic resonance imaging. It consists of 14 chapters, a glossary, list of symbols and bibliographic references. Making good use of frames technology, chapter text appears on the right while helpful references, sidebars, images and illustrations display on the left. Each chapter ends with a set of problems. If you click the answer icon, an explanation loads in the left frame. The work is nicely done and well worth a visit by those interested in the topic.
CDMS, Inc. (Crop Data Management Systems, Inc.) offers product labels and MSDS (material safety data sheets) from over 80 manufacturers. You can browse the list of manufacturers or search by product or brand name.
The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit environmental research organization, created this Web site, which provides access to an archive of chemical industry documents obtained via litigation discovery or the Freedom of Information Act. Many of the documents pertain to vinyl chloride, a chemical found in aerosol propellants until the mid-1970s, Scotchguard, which contains PFOS, or perfluorooctane sulfonate, hairspray, which until 1974 contained vinyl chloride monomer, and the chemical industry's influence on public opinion and government regulation.
Scorecard, a Web site sponsored by environmental rights group, Environmental Defense, provides information on more than 11,000 chemicals regulated by U.S. environmental laws. Search by chemical name, common name or CAS (Chemical Abstracts Service) registry number to find recognized or suspected health hazards, brief information about its use, how it is regulated, and where you can find additional information. Some of the profiles also include information about safety testing and risk assessment.
The National Library of Medicine makes available this online dictionary of more than 360,000 chemicals. Find chemical structures, toxicity, properties, such as boiling point, melting point, solubility and molecular weight, and more. Search for chemicals by their range of effects, toxicity or the parts of the body the chemicals may act on (such as nervous system, skin, heart, kidneys and liver). The database also helps you draw a chemical structure or search for other chemicals with similar structures.
Chemistry Preprint Server, The
ChemWeb offers this free resource for searching, browsing, retrieving the full-text of, and commenting on, chemistry preprints. Currently, the server stores a small number of preprints, but ChemWeb is actively soliciting submissions. Articles appear in 10 topics: analytical chemistry, biochemistry, chemical engineering, environmental chemistry, inorganic chemistry, macromolecular chemistry, medicinal chemistry, miscellaneous, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry.
Visitors must register to use the server, and registration is free. Preprints appear in portable document format (PDF).
Use the navigational menu on the left to find this section of the EPA Office of Pesticide Program's Web site. It contains indexes of cleared science reviews. Cleared science reviews contain information about pesticide studies, including toxicology, environmental fate and groundwater, ecological effects, and product chemistry. They are "cleared" of confidential business information. Select a chemical name to find an index of documents available under the Freedom of Information Act.
USGS Wildlife and Contaminants Online
The Biomonitoring of Environmental Status and Trends (BEST) program of the U.S. Geological Survey offers this database of contaminant exposure and effects for terrestrial vertebrates residing in Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, Alaskan, and Hawaiian coastal regions. Multiple search criteria exist ranging from scientific terms and values for contaminants to common animal names.
CambridgeSoft Corporation, maker of desktop applications for chemists and engineers, offers a powerful chemical reference tool. Chemfinder prompts researchers to enter one of the following: the name of a compound, its formula, molecular weight, CAS registry number, or structure. It returns the name of the compound, synonyms, CAS registry number, chemical data like its melting point and water solubility, the EPA code and RTECS number.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides this database containing single chemical toxicity information for aquatic and terrestrial life. Data comes primarily from primary source materials and consists of information on the species, chemical, test methods, and results presented by the author. The database also contains test results compiled by U.S. and international government agencies.
A quick query feature enables searching by species, chemical, or toxicological effect. It provides laboratory data and bibliographic references. An advanced query feature lets you narrow your query by data compiled by certain government entities, publication year, test conditions, or other factors.
The Department of Energy, in conjunction with other agencies and the U.S. Government Printing Office, offers this database of bibliographic information about energy and energy-related articles, reports, conference papers, books, dissertations and other publications. Database coverage extends back to 1948. The advanced search template offers numerous ways in which to query the database, including by keyword, author, title and research or sponsoring organization. If the full-text of a document is available on the Web, the database provides location information.
EPA Substance Registry System (SRS)
Replacing the Chemical Registry System (CRS), this EPA database provides information on chemical substances and how they are represented in EPA regulations and data systems. Search by chemical name Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) registry number, Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN), International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) database identifier, or other identifier, to find basic chemical information, synonyms, applicable regulations, and more. You can also download chemical data sheets.
Several academic institutions join to provide information pertaining to pesticide toxicology and environmental chemistry. Visitors will find a newsletter (published irregularly by the University of California, Davis), pesticide information profiles, toxicology information briefs, factsheets, news, and other information. The site offers a search engine for finding references within each of these resources.
Free Full-Text Journals in Chemistry
Belarusian State University in Minsk maintains an index to free full-text journals on the Web that cover topics in chemistry. Each entry includes a brief annotation, which often reveals the publisher and dates of publication available. A companion site provides a directory of journals offering trials or temporary availability. Two RSS feeds keep you up to date with additions and changes.
When it comes to chemistry, I'm definitely out of my, er, element! This site offers a basic resource for people like me. Find a searchable common compound library that provides synonyms as well as Chime structures and spectra. A cool feature of this library is an automatic link to ChemFinder when your search fails. For example, a search for polybutylene fails in the compound library, but clicking on the button, ChemFinder, automatically links to the definition there for "Butene, homopolymer [9003-29-6]." Also find answers to 400 frequently asked chemistry questions, a glossary of chemical terms, an annotated collection of additional resources, and more.
Glossary for Chemists of Terms Used in Toxicology
The National Library of Medicine provides a glossary of definitions and explanatory notes for over 1200 terms frequently used in the multidisciplinary field of toxicology. Compiled for chemists, the glossary contains medical and other specialized terms that those in the field would recognize and understand. The glossary also contains appendices, which provide abbreviations used in toxicology, abbreviations of international bodies and literature sources.
Glossary: Chemistry of Everyday Life
Frederick A. Senese, associate professor of chemistry at Frostburg State University maintains a glossary of chemical terms. It includes .wav files for listening to the pronunciation of select terms and links to more information about some terms appearing in the definitions.
Hazardous Substances Data Bank
A subset of the National Library of Medicine's Toxicology Data Network (TOXNET), the database contains information about the toxicology of potentially hazardous chemicals. It includes information on human exposure, industrial hygiene, emergency handling procedures, environmental fate, regulatory requirements, and more. Search by keyword, chemical name or CAS number.
HighWire Press: Search Multiple Journals
HighWire Press, founded by Stanford University, assists in the publication of 210 online medical or science journals. It offers a database for searching the content of these journals.
Search by author(s), title, abstract or keyword to find article summaries and full-text articles. Some journals require registration or paid subscription for full-text access.
The National Library of Medicine offers this database of information about household products. Based on the 2001 Consumer Product Information Database by DeLima Associates, it provides the chemical ingredients and health effects of common household brands. Search or browse by brand name, manufacturer, CAS Registry Number, chemical ingredient, health effect (e.g., headache) or type of product to find detailed information about the product and its manufacturer, health effects, handling and disposal and chemical ingredients.
International Chemical Safety Cards
The International Labour Organization (ILO) offers this database containing international chemical safety cards. Unlike the similar NIOSH database, it enables keyword searching.
International Chemical Safety Cards (CDC)
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) offers the text of International Chemical Safety Cards (ICSC) modified to include:
* OSHA Permissible Exposure Limits
* NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limits
* Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health values, and
* Links to the Appendices in the NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards
ICSC cards summarize essential health and safety information on chemicals for their use at the "shop floor" level by workers and employers in factories, agriculture, construction and other work places.
Intute: Science, Engineering & Technology
Formerly a physical sciences hub of the Resource Discovery Network, this site strives to provide high quality Internet resources for students, researchers and practitioners in the physical sciences, specifically in: astronomy, chemistry, earth sciences, physics, and science history and policy.
The Web site for this interagency program offers much information of potential value to legal and environmental researchers. Find information about the status of chemical agents tested by the NTP, chemical health and safety, abstracts of toxicology and carcinogenesis studies, and more.
NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards
"[I]ntended as a source of general industrial hygiene information for workers, employers, and occupational health professionals," this guide offers basic chemical and safety information about hazardous substances. Find CAS and RTECS numbers, synonyms and tradenames, exposure limits, physical descriptions, protection and sanitation information, first aid, respirator recommendations, symptoms, and more.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) offers this resource of chemical and physical property data for chemical species. It includes information mostly about organic compounds. Data offered includes the chemical name, formula, molecular weight, CAS registry number, chemical structure, other names, and assorted other data.
Periodic Table of the Elements
ChemGlobe offers this useful periodic table of the elements. Click on an element to find information about it, including its symbol, atomic number, atomic mass, group, CAS number, physical data, isotopes, and other basic information. After displaying the details of an element, users may go to an adjacent element using a handy navigational tool.
The Pesticide Action Network North America offers this database of toxicity, ecotoxicity, and regulatory information for about 5,100 pesticides. Search by chemical name, CAS number, EPA PC Code or CA DPR Chem Code. You can then narrow a search by use type (e.g., insecticide, herbicide, etc.), human toxicity (e.g., bad actor chemical, carcinogen, etc.), regulatory category (e.g., EPA registered, etc.), or chemical classification. You may also query the later categories separately to find, for example, all known carcinogens registered by the EPA.
The database returns a chart containing all matches. The chart includes all the above information about matching chemicals. Click on a chemical name in the search results to find additional data including synonyms, links to information about the chemical in other resources including ChemFinder, TOXNET, Scorecard (Environmental Defense Fund), International Chemical Safety Cards (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health), and Hazardous Substance Fact Sheets (New Jersey Dept. of Health and Senior Services), detailed human toxicity information, regulatory information, aquatic ecotoxicity, and a list of related chemicals.
Site documentation promises soon to improve the database to enable searching by product name, registration status, or manufacturer, and to add pesticide use information for California by crop, chemical, and geographic region.
Document delivery service Infotrieve offers its database of information about journals covering a variety of topics. Search the database for free to find journal titles, publisher, ISSN, language, contact information, and more. The service also lets users view tables of contents, when available. Table of contents coverage extends back several years for some publications. Users may also opt to receive journal table of contents notices by email.
Scientific and Technical Acronyms, Symbols, and Abbreviations
Published by John Wiley & Sons during 2001, this reference work features over 200,000 entries covering the abbreviations, symbols and acronyms used in science and technology. You may search or browse the text.
Elsevier offers this search engine devoted to finding scientific information. Powered by FAST (alltheweb.com), Scirus collects, indexes, and retrieves information pertaining to agricultural and biological sciences, biosciences, chemistry, Earth and planetary sciences, environmental sciences, life sciences, medicine, pharmacology, social and behavioral sciences, and more.
Using the simple search feature on the home page, searchers may enter a phrase, or string several words together with the Boolean "and," and limit the search to a particular field of science. The advanced search page offers more options including the ability to limit a query so that it retrieves articles only. From the results list, searchers also may select "more like this result" to retrieve items similar to one on the hit list.
Because the engine also indexes information from fee-based subscription services, searchers will find peer-reviewed journal articles. Retrieving these articles (called Membership Sources) requires a subscription to Science Direct.
Activist groups Environmental Working Group and EWG Action Fund offer a database of information about the harmful effects of skin products. Search by product, including the brand name, product category (e.g., hair care) or ingredient to find information about safety concerns. Safety concerns include the use of ingredients that pose cancer risks, contain harmful impurities or penetration enhancers, are known allergens or present some other health or safety concern.
Toxicological Profile Information Sheet
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) offers toxicological profiles for hazardous substances found at National Priorities List (NPL) sites. Profiles appear in draft and final form. They provide a public health statement and include health effects and chemical and physical information, as well as, information about production, import, use, and disposal, potential for human exposure, analytical methods, regulations and advisories, and more.
The National Library of Medicine maintains this interactive Web site, which reveals the location and amount of certain toxic chemicals released into the environment. TOXMAP shows the geographic distribution of chemical releases, their relative amounts and trends over time. The release data comes from industrial facilities around the United States, as reported annually to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The National Library of Medicine offers this group of databases devoted to toxicology, hazardous chemicals and related information.
Wildlife and Contaminants OnlineFormerly a single database sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey and entitled Contaminant Exposure and Effects (CEETV), this resource now comprises the database and two utilities. CEETV provides information about contaminant exposure and effects for terrestrial vertebrates (birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles) that reside in estuarine and coastal habitats along the Atlantic, Gulf, Pacific, Alaskan and Hawaiian coastal regions. A second component of the site offers information about biological and ecotoxicological characteristics of birds, reptiles, mammals and amphibians. Another section lets you rank terrestrial vertebrates by their susceptibility to specific contaminants.
