Research Guides: Chemical safety information: Home

Librarian

Meghan Lafferty

Email me at

Contact:

Walter 345

612-624-9399

Sources of chemical safety information

Best bets

CAMEO Chemicals
CAMEO Chemicals is a database of hazardous chemical datasheets that include physical properties; health hazards; information about air and water hazards; recommendations for firefighting, first aid, and spill response; and regulatory information. Searchable by name, CAS number, or UN/NA number.

Knovel
Database of important reference works from engineering and related fields. Includes classic chemical safety resources like Bretherick's Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards (8th Edition), Sax's Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials (12th Edition), Sittig's Handbook of Toxic and Hazardous Chemicals and Carcinogens.

For a tutorial on using Knovel, go to Start a research project with Knovel.

Pistoia Alliance Chemical Safety Library (CSL)
Crowd sourced data content containing hazardous reactions that can be used to alert scientists to potential dangerous experiments
PubChem
PubChem is an open chemistry database with information on chemical structures, identifiers, chemical and physical properties, biological activities, patents, health, safety, toxicity data, and many others.

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PubChem is focused primarily on small molecules and is a product of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Other sources of chemical safety information

CAS Common Chemistry
CAS Common Chemistry provides names, other identifiers, and property information for nearly 500,000 common and frequently regulated chemical substances from CAS REGISTRY.
Organic Syntheses
Online access to classic reference work giving detailed synthetic methods. Procedures are independently checked and safety warnings given if warranted. More recent entries tend to describe preparation of compound classes. Structure searchable.

Reaxys (Chemistry)
Provides access to chemical structure, reaction, and property information on organic, inorganic, and organometallic compounds; its contents are derived from Beilstein (organic compounds) and Gmelin (inorganic and organometallic compounds), which date to the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as selected English-language chemical patents.
Science of Synthesis
Science of Synthesis is a compendium of evaluated synthetic methods for organic and organometallic chemistry. Science of Synthesis E-Book format (text but not structure-searchable) is available at https://www.thieme-connect.com/products.

The dynamic reaction and structure searchable database version of Science of Synthesis is available at https://sos.thieme.com. Individual titles can be found via searching Libraries Search or within the E-Book website by title.

We have access to the Science of Synthesis Backlist (2002 – 2008); Knowledge Updates (2009-2023); and Reference Libraries (2009-2015) (see Books tab). The Houben–Weyl Methods of Molecular Transformations Backfile (1909 -2001) is accessible via the Book Series tab. NB: many Houben-Weyl Archive articles are in German.
SciFinder
SciFinder is one of the best databases for topics related to chemistry and adjacent fields. It includes journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, and patents. Find substance and reaction information as well as suppliers and chemical regulatory data.

Registration is required, and you must download the Virtual Private Network (VPN) from UMN Office of Information Technology, set up new account if you don't have one and then log in to it for off-campus access.

Last Updated: Sep 30, 2025 3:43 PM