Databases and Information Resources

The NIOSH Web site features many different types of databases and information resources. They are categorized here by Chemical; Injury, Illness & Hazards Data and Information; Publications; Respirators and other Personal Protective Equipment; Agriculture; and Construction. The most popular databases include the International Chemical Safety Cards, NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards, and NIOSHTIC-2.

Chemical

• Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health (IDLH)
  Provides the immediately dangerous to life or health air concentration values (IDLHs) for substances and the criteria and information sources that have been used to determine these values.
  
  
• International Chemical Safety Cards (WHO/IPCS/ILO)
  ICSC cards summarize essential health and safety information on chemicals for their use at the "shop floor" level by workers and employers in factories, agriculture, construction and other work places.
  
  
• Manual of Analytical Methods (NMAM)
  NMAM is a collection of methods for sampling and analysis of contaminants in workplace air, and in the blood and urine of workers who are occupationally exposed.
  
  
• NIOSH Pocket Guide To Chemical Hazards (NPG)
  The NPG is intended as a source of general industrial hygiene information on several hundred chemicals/classes for workers, employers, and occupational health professionals.
  
  
• Occupational Safety and Health Guidelines for Chemical Hazards
  Summarizes information on permissible exposure limits, chemical and physical properties, and health hazards. It provides recommendations for medical surveillance, respiratory protection, and personal protection and sanitation practices for specific chemicals that have Federal occupational safety and health regulations.
  
  
• OSHA 1988 Permissible Exposure Limits (PELs)
  PELs are OSHA comments from the January 19, 1989 Final Rule on Air Contaminants Project extracted from 54FR2332 et. seq. This rule was remanded by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the limits are not currently in force.
  
  
• Specific Medical Tests Published in the Literature for OSHA Regulated Substances (MEDTEST)
  The MEDTEST database lists the specific medical tests published in the literature for OSHA regulated substances. Updates of OSHA mandated tests (July 1, 2000) and NIOSH/OSHA recommendations are included.

Injury, Illness & Hazards Data and Information

• Hearing Protector Device Compendium
  This compendium, as of June 2003, contains data from 23 manufacturers nationwide (down from 53 in the 1994 compendium) on 292 hearing protectors (up from 241 in the 1994 compendium).
  
  
• HHE Health Hazard Evaluations (HHEs)
  NIOSH conducts Health Hazard Evaluations (HHEs) to find out whether there are health hazards to employees caused by exposures or conditions in the workplace.
  
  
• National Occupational Exposure Survey (NOES)
  NOES contains data collected by NIOSH from 1981 to 1983 on potential occupational exposures to chemical, physical, and biological agents in a broad spectrum of U.S. industries. It can be used to associate potential exposures with industry types, occupations, observed exposure conditions, and other parameters.
  
  
• National Occupational Respiratory Mortality System (NORMS)
  An interactive query system designed to generate statistics, charts, and maps relating to mortality from occupationally-related lung diseases.
  
  
• Noise and Hearing Loss Prevention: NIOSH Power Tools Database
  An informational database on commonly used power tools in occupational settings. This database contains such information as sound power levels, sound pressure level and downloadable exposure files.
  
  
• Organization of Work: Measurement Tools for Research and Practice
  Organization of work refers to the work process and the organizational practices that influence job design, including how jobs are and human resource policies are structured. This Web site enhances research in this priority area by providing a means for researchers to quickly and easily identify available instruments for measuring organizational characteristics that may be useful for advancing research on the associations between work organization and worker safety, health, and well-being.
  
  
• Worker Health Chartbook, 2004
  The Worker Health Chartbook, 2004 is a descriptive epidemiologic reference on occupational morbidity and mortality in the United States. A resource for agencies, organizations, employers, researchers, workers, and others who need to know about occupational injuries and illnesses, the Chartbook includes more than 400 figures and tables describing the magnitude, distribution, and trends of the Nation’s occupational injuries, illnesses, and fatalities.
  
  
• Work-Related Injury Statistics Query System (Work-RISQS)
  Work-RISQS provides a web-based public access query system for obtaining national estimates (number of cases) and rates (number of cases per hours worked) for nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments. Users may interactively query based on demographic characteristics, nature of injury/illness, and incident circumstances for the years 1998 and 1999.
  
  
• Work-Related Lung Disease (WoRLD) Surveillance Report
  The WoRLD report presents information on various work-related respiratory diseases and associated exposures in the United States, and describes where these diseases are occurring (by industry and geographic location), who is affected (by race, gender, age, and occupation), how frequently they occur, and temporal trends.
  
  
• Standardized Occupation and Industry Coding (SOIC)
  The Standardized Occupation and Industry Coding (SOIC) software automates the coding process for industry and occupation (I&O) narratives from death certificates, cancer registries, and other record systems. The software assigns codes according to the 1990 Bureau of the Census industry and occupation codes and supplemental codes from the National Center for Health Statistics. This site provides a downloadable version of the SOIC software and User’s Manual as well as other SOIC information and installation resources.

Publications

• Common Information Service System (CISS)
  CISS is an information system provided as a public service by NIOSH Mining Safety and Health Research (formerly the U.S. Bureau of Mines). Thousands of publications are stored in this searchable database in bibliographic form and include abstracts.
  
  
• NIOSHTIC-2
  NIOSHTIC-2 is a bibliographic database of occupational safety and health publications, documents, grant reports, and other communication products supported in whole or in part by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Respirators and other Personal Protective Equipment

• CBRN APR NIOSH Approved Respirators
  This site provides information for determining if a given APR is certified by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for use by emergency responders in a potential CBRN situation. It also provides a list of devices that have been certified by NIOSH for such use.
  
  
• CBRN SCBA NIOSH Approved Respirators
  This site provides information from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on testing and certifying self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) for use by emergency responders in chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) environments.
  
  
• Certified Equipment List (CEL)
  The CEL is a database of all NIOSH certified respirators and coal mine dust personal sampler units.
  
  
• NIOSH-Approved Disposable Particulate Respirators (Filtering Facepieces)
  Provides a listing of NIOSH-approved disposable particulate respirators that health care workers can use to help protect themselves from diseases potentially spread through the air, such as SARS or Tuberculosis.
  
  
• Recommendations for Chemical Protective Clothing
  Provides assistance in identifying potentially appropriate types of chemical barrier material for protection against skin contact with the chemicals listed in the NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards.

Agriculture

• National Agriculture Safety Database (NASD)
  NASD is a collection of information about health, safety and injury prevention in agriculture. The information in the database was contributed by safety professionals and organizations from across the nation in an effort to promote safety in agriculture.
  
  
• Farm Family Health and Hazard Surveillance
  The FFHHS Program surveyed the health status of agricultural workers and their families as well as the work-related risk factors and conditions of exposure to potentially hazardous agents and events.

Construction

• Electronic Library of Construction Safety and Health (ELCOSH)
  ELCOSH provides a wide range of materials on construction safety and health. The goal is to improve safety and health for construction workers by making such information easier to obtain than in the past.