Chemical Health and Safety Data Management

Abstract

Abstract In response to a sequence of dramatic accidents in research laboratories, [1, 2, 3] over the last five years the academic chemistry sector in the United States has focused on improving its safety culture and adopting more prudent laboratory practices. [4] Crucial to this effort is improved accessibility and management of chemical health and safety data and information tools that support laboratory process risk assessment. To this end, chemical safety, information, and education professionals are collaborating to facilitate and improve the risk assessment process for chemistry researchers and research students, as reported previously in Chemistry International. [5] The goal is to connect existing chemical safety and education communities and information technologies to improve F indability, A ccessibility, I nteroperability and R e-use of chemical safety data for both researchers and information systems. These are referred to as the FAIR principles for sharing research data. [6] There are a number of collaborative efforts applying this concept in order to facilitate the use of existing data, as well as to identify data gaps in the support of hazard analysis and risk assessment for academic research scenarios.