Thanks Rob.

Alan – I used and remember those CDs.  I really appreciated them, but didn’t realize how much until they weren’t available and I had to “hunt” for the information.  I’m not an internet sleuth and should probably be considered having limited technological capabilities, but I’m not retired yet either.

I’m amazed that in the effort to “simplify” for broader consumption,  i.e., reading on a smart phone v. PC,  the internet has dumbed down sites and this seems widespread.  Not scientifically analyzed, just my personal observation – which I hope is inaccurate.

BruceV

 

From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU> On Behalf Of Alan Hall
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2023 9:58 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**Princeton.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] ATSDR vinyl chloride case study found: Was Re: C&EN: Ohio train derailment raises more questions

 

Rob,

 

Good to know.  I was part of the initial ATSDR Peer Review group who assisted in the design and writing/peer reviewing the original Case Studies in Environmental Medicine, but it's been some time since I did so.

For PubChem, as far as I can tell, when most of NLM's Specialized Information Systems was disbanded, what seems to now be PubChem was then HSDB (Hazardous Substances DaI used to attend as I was a "Vendor-Observer".  From Micromedex's Poisindex and TOMES Plus database, we supplied Emergency Medical Treatment data and in return we re-published HSDB on CD-ROM which was state-of-the-art technology at the time.  I don't know if PubChem is still updated or whether it is still simply there as it was sometime ago.  Nearly all of the folks I worked with at NLM SIS have since retired.

 

As anyone who has edited large databases will know, it's pretty easy (but a lot of work) to write the documents in the first place.  Keeping them up to date is very much harder

 

Thanks for the input.  I haven't been working in Medical Informatics for some time.

 

Alan

Alan H. Hall, M.D.

Medical Toxicologist

 

On Wed, Feb 22, 2023 at 1:01 PM Info <info**At_Symbol_Here**ilpi.com> wrote:

On Feb 21, 2023, at 3:43 PM, Ralph Stuart <ralph**At_Symbol_Here**RSTUARTCIH.ORG> wrote:

 

The Case Study no longer seems to be available on the ATSDR website, but there is an extensive Toxicological Profile on the subject with a 2006 date available which should review all the available data up to then.

 

Thanks for this comment. Many (but not all) of the toxicological reviews that EPA sponsored in the 20th Century have been moved to the National Library of Medicine and are available in disaggregated form via PubChem. Your comment led me to conduct some interesting review of the literature available in PubChem and elsewhere from the EPA about vinyl chloride and other chemicals. 

 

Just a reminder that the Internet Archive’s wayback machine captures a lot of this stuff.  If you have a specific URL, you enter that to search for it.

 

Not having a URL to search, I looked up the ATSDR home page. The archive currently has 9,748 captures of the ATSDR web site (not necessarily complete) since Feb 29 of 2000: 

https://web.archive.org/web/20230220124316/https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/  

 

Keep in mind that the “Search” or other interactive functions of these archives will not work, so unless you have the old disappeared URL to search on, you will need to navigate your way to the arcane knowledge you are seeking...

 

I looked up a random 2006 date and on the ATSDR there was a link to “Environmental Case Studies”  on the home page.  But I couldn’t find a case study on vinyl chloride: https://web.archive.org/web/20051102072554/http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HEC/CSEM/csem.html  Until I went back to the first capture and found it listed under “Case Studies Available in Hard Copy "(Previous Editions)” here: https://web.archive.org/web/20011129120800/http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HEC/CSEM/status.html#substances 

 

Armed with that knowledge, I did find the case study eventually!  https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/4795/chapter/59  It was a 1990 case study and published in 1995.  Free download with registration.

 

 

I use this Wayback Machine A LOT  in maintaining our SDS Hyperglossary and safety resources - to either link to stuff that has inextricably disappeared or to find the original material so I can search on its contents to see if it has moved somewhere current.  This, and Wikipedia, are both resources that are worthy of the occasional financial support by those who use them, so consider donating sometime.

 

BTW, we will be issuing an update to our free SDS and other safety resources in probably two weeks or so. You’ll see a modern unified navigation menu, https, and better mobile readability.  Stay tuned for details.

 

Rob Toreki

 

 

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