Organizing Chemical Information to Support Lab Safety

The Internet provides easy access to a wide variety of information sources relevant to answering chemical safety questions in the laboratory. However, this information is found in a wide variety of formats with varying audiences and intents. This often means that the quality of the information is difficult to evaluate, organize and use to support risk assessment of laboratory work with hazardous chemicals. The ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety and Division of Chemical Information are partnering to address this concern by developing a chemical safety ontology, or structured vocabulary of terms associated with chemical hazards and risk assessment and management. The goal of this ontology will be to enable the organization of chemical safety information in a sustainable, scalable, and transferable way. This paper will describe the conceptual basis of this work, including the key stakeholders involved, the information channels they use, and their roles in conducting and overseeing the chemical risk assessments in the laboratory.