Substance Information System A Smart Search Engine Providing an Integrative View on occupational human health risk information.

Substance Information System (SIS) is a public tool developed on the TNO DIAMONDS platform that allows users to search and find information on hazardous substances. The tool collects and organizes information from diverse sources to provide an integrative resource on substance properties, safety, health effects, exposure, and application by business sectors.

In collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (SZW) and within the EPHOR project, TNO has developed SIS with the aim of preventing occupational diseases through better organization and dissemination of available information on hazardous substances. Within the tool, users may either start by searching for a substance or a sector.

A lot of information can be found online in publicly available databases, however, what was lacking thus far, was a tool that brings information about hazardous substances together in a manner that facilitates the accessibility and interpretation, ultimately helping to prevent occupational diseases.

Exposure to dangerous substances at WORK

In the Netherlands more than 4.000 people die yearly due to the consequences of long-term exposure in the workplace. According to Arbobalans 2020, kwaliteit van de arbeid, effecten en maatregelen in Nederland. TNO, Leiden 2020 three quarters of that figure is due to exposure to hazardous substances. The Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (SZW) asked TNO to help the ministry with a system that helps to quickly obtain information about a specific chemical substance and its use. The aim is to quickly answer questions like: "How is this substance used?", "Which sectors are working with substance x?", "How many people are potentially exposed to substance x?" and "Which risk management measures are available to limit its exposure?".

Unique PUBLIC TOOL

Although SIS was originally made for SZW, other institutes such as the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER), knowledge institutes and de Gezondheidsraad could equally benefit from a tool like SIS. Therefore, we have decided to make SIS a publicly available online tool (from Monday April 11th onwards). One can start by searching for a substance of concern or by searching for a sector of interest. In the tool one can find information about applications and tasks related to humans and environment, expected exposure, hazard and possible health effects and/or occupational diseases.

The development of SIS is a continued development for the coming years where TNO will uniquely combine years of expertise on exposure, hazard and risk assessments with a mix of IT infrastructure solutions and AI-based approaches (such as textmining, machine learning pipelines, federated learning, RDF & FAIR Data points). SIS allows to switch between a Dutch version (called Stoffen Informatie Systeem) and an English version.

Do you want to know more about SIS?

Follow the link to learn more about SIS in a recent TNO Insights article (in Dutch) including contact information: Stoffen Informatie Systeem: Geavanceerde online zoekmachine voor chemische stoffen (opens in a new tab)

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This tool is freely available, please register or login