Database Origins

The database was originally developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) personnel, and is being maintained and updated by ICON at Rice University.

ORNL searched the following bibliographic databases:

TOXNET

MEDLINE

NTIS (National Technical Information Service)

All search files were reviewed for relevance to EHS criteria, and consolidated to the database presented here.

See presentation by Tim Borges at  2005 Annual AIChE Meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio for more information on database origin/handling  - this link provides only slides specific to the ICON database development from that presentation.

The following excerpt was taken from a recent  Rice University press release and gives more detail on the origins of the database:

"A need to collect currently available knowledge on EHS issues of nanoscale materials was recognized by the Environmental Safety and Health working group of the National Nanotechnology Initiative - Chemical Industry Consultive Board for Advancing Nanotechnology (NNI-ChI CBAN). The NNI-ChI-CBAN working group ( which includes EHS specialists at several chemical companies, Rice faculty fellow Dr. Kristen Kulinowski, and contacts from multiple government agencies) commissioned Dr. Tim Borges and Ms. LeeAnn Wilson at Oak Ridge National Laboratorty to begin compiling a database through a Chemicals Plus project of the Industrial Technologies Program of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. Researchers at Rice University then helped to analyze the material, make the findings web-accessible and will maintain the database".