About the
"Where to Find MSDS's on the Internet" Page

Some History and Philosophy

Where to Find MSDS on the Internet has been a success because it is focused, up to date and comprehensive. We would like to thank the many kind souls who email new tips, alert us to copyright violations or inform us when a link has become invalid.

This one page details ~100 Internet resources for free MSDS information. The MSDS page does not list databases that charge for access or sites that are restricted to members of particular organizations. This stems from a personal belief that information that saves lives and prevents injury should be freely available to all. However, in recognition that many individuals and companies need assistance in record keeping, we maintain two sister pages, one that lists commercial MSDS suppliers and another for MSDS software and databases.

In addition, we offer an MSDS FAQ (frequently asked questions) list, a 500+ term hyperlinked glossary of common MSDS terms (used over 1,000,000 times in 2002), over 325 relevant government regulations and interpretations, and a list of MSDS and safety-related books. And we have just launched an on-line store, Safety Emporium for all of you who have asked for MSDS binders, labels, posters and more.

This page was conceived in October of 1995 by Paul Restivo who was (at that time) Director of the Environmental Health and Safety Office at the University of Kentucky, and is authored and maintained by Dr. Rob Toreki who was (at that time) a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kentucky. In 1998, Rob and Paul went on to found ILPI which has as its main focus the creation of custom web-based training solutions for companies and government organizations.

The page was originally served from the U of KY main web server, but moved to the Chemistry Department server in June of 1996. In July of 1998, the page moved to its new location at Interactive Learning Paradigms, Incorporated.

Usage Statistics

Our MSDS page is now the #1 non-paid search result at most major search engines (Google, AOL, Yahoo, Teoma, Ask Jeeves, Earthlink, Lycos etc.) for searches on "MSDS" and "Material Safety Data Sheets". Traffic has grown accordingly from 626,000 page impressions (views of the page) in 2001 to 795,000 page impressions in 2002, an increase of 27%. And that's just this one page alone. In total, we receive over 2,000,000 page impressions per year and traffic is continuing to grow as we expand our site content.

The steady increase in usage results from the growing number of pages linked to the MSDS page. We stopped counting long ago, but estimate there are well at least 4,000 sites linked to the MSDS page including:

• Government agencies such as the U.S. OSHA, EPA and CDC.
• Various military agencies, including the U.S. Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard.
• Universities such as Caltech, MIT, and UC-Berkeley
• Corporations of all sizes including IBM, Ford, Boeing etc.
• Individuals from all walks of life ranging from body piercers to environmental health and safety professionals.

In addition, this resource has been featured in numerous trade journals, including one that called it "one of the two best general MSDS sites on the Internet", as well as the AAAS publication, Science. For interview and reprint requests, please Contact Us.

Monthly/Cumulative Stats (MSDS Page Only)



The monthly average over Q2 and Q3 of 2005 was 86,000 impressions from 42,500 distinct hosts. On peak days, the page receives over 5,000 impressions:

Recent Daily Stats (MSDS page only)



Usage is highest Monday through Friday as shown below. Activity is highest from 9 AM to 5 PM local (Eastern US) time, with over 400 page impressions per hour, with peak usage usually at 10-11 AM and 1-2 PM local time. Traffic is lowest from 1 AM to 4 AM. December is always our slowest month.

If you are interested in advertising on any of our pages or would like shelf space in our on-line store, simply contact us for pricing and availability. We have MSDS packages starting at just $30 US per month.

This page was last updated Tuesday, June 27, 2006 and is brought to you by Interactive Learning Paradigms, Incorporated. This document is copyright 1995-2013 by ILPI. All rights reserved.