“Those MSDS sheets have too much information for me to slog through. I wish I could get summaries of the safety precautions that I need to take as a high school teacher.”

“I didn’t know that there were safety concerns with borax, glass wool, graphite, iron oxide, and sucrose. I wonder what I need to be concerned about in using these chemicals in my class or laboratory.”

“We use acetone, ammonia, citric acid, ethyl alcohol, glycerol, phenolphthalein, and potassium permanganate quite often in my lab. What should I tell my students about the precautions they need to take when handling these substances?”

Such statements about chemicals by high school teachers are common. There is so much to know and so little time to learn. Students, their parents, and the school administrators need to be convinced that it is safe to do chemistry in the laboratory. What is the answer?

Safety expert Jay Young has combined information from MSDS sheets with his many years of experience to produce a one-page Chemical Laboratory Information Profile (CLIP) for many of the chemicals that you are most likely to encounter in the laboratory. But the CLIPs remain distributed among the more than 50 issues in which they were published. So, we have compiled all 106 of these CLIPs published from April 2001 through July 2005 as PDF files on a single CD-ROM, JCE CLIPs.

What Information Does a CLIP Include?

Each CLIP includes the name, formula and CAS number of the substance along with its other common names. The physical properties and exposure limits are listed in a tabular format. Hazardous characteristics are identified and additional remarks provide more useful information. A Notes section provides references for further research if necessary.

Browsing and Searching

JCE CLIPs provides several ways to find safety information. There are two tables of contents, one ordered by name and one by formula. A click on a name or formula in either table of contents takes you directly to the CLIP.

You can also search the contents of the CLIPs CD. You can search the text of all the CLIPs for any word, partial word, or phrase. A successful search produces a list of links to the CLIPs that satisfy your criteria. When you are searching the text, the text for which you searched will be highlighted in each CLIP.

Advantages of JCE CLIPs CD-ROM

JCE CLIPs are formatted to retain their original appearance in the Journal. The full-text searching feature helps you locate CLIPs with related information. With a few clicks of the mouse, you can view a CLIP on your computer monitor. You can print copies to post in your lab. Having all published CLIPs in a compact, lightweight, portable package is extremely convenient.

Price and Ordering

Price for this CD-ROM for Macintosh and Windows: Single user on a single machine: $19.95 U.S./$29.95 non-U.S. Additional prices for libraries and networks as well as other information may be obtained by contacting JCE Software, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706-1396; phone; 608/262-5153 or 800/991-5534 (U.S.); fax: 608/265-8094.

An order form is inserted in this issue that also provides prices and other ordering information. Information about all JCE publications (including abstracts, descriptions, updates) is available from our World Wide Web site.

You may purchase JCE CLIPs CD-ROM at the JCE Online Store.