Hazardous reactions database moving to CAS

The Chemical Safety Library, a database created for chemists to share information about hazardous reactions, will be moving to CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society (ACS publishes C&EN.)

The library was originally developed by the Pistoia Alliance, which brings together life sciences industry stakeholders to address R&D challenges. Launched in 2017, the library now has more than 1,000 registered users and information from more than 140 incidents. Users can submit information to the library confidentially, and the data are freely available to the public and uploaded to PubChem, an open chemistry database supported by the National Institutes of Health.

As CAS becomes host and developer of the Chemical Safety Library, it “will continue to be a free resource for the entire chemical community, enhanced with a new deposition and search interface developed by CAS,” CAS and Pistoia say in a joint statement.

CAS specializes in scientific information management and technology. “I cannot think of a better organization to entrust with the Pistoia Alliance’s Chemical Safety Library than CAS, and I am pleased they have agreed to support this important effort,” says Pistoia Alliance president Steve Arlington in the statement.

“Based on an initial project designed to eliminate repeat incidents and increase safety at Bristol Myers Squibb, Chemical Safety Library has grown to become an important safety resource for the entire global research community, thanks to the stewardship of the Pistoia Alliance and its members,” says Alastair Binnie, vice president of information technology for R&D at Bristol Myers Squibb, in the statement. “We look forward to seeing this important industry database continue to grow and thrive under the management of CAS.”