About OSH-DB, Occupational Safety and Health Database

OSH-DB consists of over 220,000 bibliographic database records from NIOSHTICŪ (which was discontinued in mid-1998) and regular updates, prepared by Information Ventures, which complement the coverage of NIOSHTICŪ. Users can access detailed summaries of articles from over 4,000 sources including 160 core journals spanning over 100 years.

Information Ventures provided monthly updates to NIOSHTICŪ from 1985-1998 under contract to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Approximately half of the material in NIOSHTICŪ was prepared by Information Ventures. Our service differs from other services because of our 13 years of experience updating the NIOSHTICŪ database. We believe we are the only organization able to provide continuous and seamless coverage of occupational safety and health literature consistent with the goals and objectives of NIOSHTICŪ. NIOSHTICŪ is a registered trademark of NIOSH. OSH-DB is compiled by Information Ventures. It contains copyrighted material. All rights reserved.

Because OSH-DB examines all aspects of adverse effects experienced by workers, much of the information contained in the Database has been selected from sources that do not have a primary occupational safety and health orientation. Types of information selected include behavioral sciences, biochemistry, physiology, and metabolism, toxicology, pathology and histology, chemistry, control technology, education and training, epidemiological studies of diseases and disorders, ergonomics, health physics, occupational medicine, safety, and hazardous waste.

The goal of OSH-DB document screening criteria is to select from available literature those documents that have special relevance to occupational safety and health. The screening criteria are directed toward that goal.

RECORD STRUCTURE

The appearance of OSH-DB records can be seen from our sample records.

ACQUISITION SOURCES

The principal acquisition sources for OSH-DB include:

1. Technical articles selected from approximately 160 core journals, and additional information from proceedings of scientific meetings, and symposia.
2. NIOSH documents including NIOSH Numbered Publications, Criteria Documents, Current Intelligence Bulletins, Hazard Evaluations and Technical Assistance Reports, Industrial Hygiene Surveys, Field Studies, and final Contract and Grant reports.
3. Selected pre-1974 documents from CIS, the International Labour Organization's occupational safety and health activity headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
4. Translations of non-English occupational safety and health articles.
5. References cited in NIOSH Criteria Documents and Current Intelligence Bulletins.

There are several valuable search tools encoded into OSH-DB records. They are intended to make searching easier and more productive.

1. CAS NUMBERS Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) registry numbers are unique numbers assigned by the Chemical Abstracts Service of the American Chemical Society to represent a specific chemical compound. The inclusion of these numbers in OSH-DB allows users to search for the appropriate CAS number as opposed to searching for all known synonyms for a particular compound. CAS numbers are currently entered into the abstract field immediately following the name of the chemical compound to which they apply. In older records, the CAS number was entered in the keyword field, so it is best not to restrict searches for CAS numbers to specific fields. You also need to know that CAS numbers are entered into OSH-DB without hyphens, so the CAS number for formaldehyde would be entered as "50000".
2. SIC CODES - Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes are unique numbers assigned by the Office of Management and Budget to represent specific industrial operations. These codes can have two to four digits with increased specificity as the number of digits increases. Most SIC codes in OSH-DB have four digits. The SIC codes are entered into the abstract field immediately following the company name or industry narrative description.