>It's intriguing to hear about and note the apparent bias against certain types of evidence in the chemistry literature, and finding resources that highlight that would be useful on their own.

This observation is based on various searches I have conducted for safety information. My experience is that only in the safety literature is the assessment step being used to prioritize the hazards of the work well described. Articles in the mainstream press outside of JChEd don’t feel it’s part of their mission to publish “failures” like safety concerns. And in CHED, safety is treated is an adjustment to the traditional rules, rather than an educational opportunity.

I would be glad to be proven wrong on this, as a colleague and I are considering writing an article describing a search strategy for hazardous reaction information, but even publications like OrgSyn, which gets very granular about the lab work do a lot of hand-waving when it comes to safety. That is why the need for Bertherick’s and, its replacement the Pisotia Chemical Safety Library, are still our primary sources of hazard information when it comes to chemicals.

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
ralph**At_Symbol_Here**rstuartcih.org

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