The MSDS Management Service (MMS) provides online access to a customized collection of MSDSs for those chemical products used by an organization. All employees, in all locations, have unlimited access to their own MSDSs through a central and secure site.

In addition, MMS clients have access to CCOHS' extensive collection of MSDSs and detailed chemical profiles produced by CCOHS. For more information on the MMS service, see "About MSDS Management Service" in the sidebar.

Use the information below as a guide to using MMS:

How to Log-in

From the Web Information Service (WIS) Home Page, under CCOHS Web Collections:

• click on the MSDS Management Service link,
• when prompted, enter your MMS user name and password, and click OK.

You are now logged-in and you can access the service. The box at the top of the MMS page confirms your organization name, complete with company logo.

You can now browse the lists or search the databases/collections. For information on the different ways to locate an MSDS, see How to Find an MSDS.

What Can MMS Users Do

A customized collection of MSDSs for your organization has been created by CCOHS. As a user of the MMS service you can:

• browse your custom collection by MSDS
• browse the CCOHS MSDS collection by manufacturer/supplier
• search CHEMINFO to get detailed information about the chemical ingredients found in the products you use
• search just your custom collection, the CCOHS MSDS collection, the CHEMINFO database, or any combination of these
• view, print or save current data sheets for products used in your workplace
• identify, mark and collect records into a personal folder called "Marked Records". This feature allows you to collect records for easy reference, and for printing and/or saving, during the current search session. For more information on using this feature, see the help on Marked Records from the "Help - Results and Toolbar" in the sidebar.

As part of your MMS subscription, you receive access to a number of services to keep you up-to-date on changes to the MSDS collections and databases. For further information, see "About MSDS Management Service" in the sidebar.

How to Find an MSDS

After log-in to the MMS service, you are taken to the custom MMS Search page for your organization. You can now find an MSDS(s) by:

• Browsing your MSDS collections -- using the alphabetical list of manufacturers/suppliers.
  • Browse the custom collection by clicking on your company name.
  • Browse the list of MSDSs in the CCOHS MSDS database.
  Tip:  Click a column heading, e.g. Manufacturer/Supplier or Product Name(s), to re-sort the list.

• Searching the collections -- using the Search box

  By default, you search your custom collection, the CCOHS MSDS collection, and the CCOHS CHEMINFO database. Alternatively, you can choose the combination of databases/collections to be searched, using the checkboxes on the search page.

  To search, simply:

  • enter a search term in the Search box,
  • select/check the collections to be searched (at least one checkbox must always be checked), and
  • click the SEARCH button.
  Tip:  To see the full list of records found in any database, enter an * (asterisk) in the Search box and click on SEARCH.

  When searching you may use either natural language searching or formal AND, OR, NOT terms with parentheses. In addition, the MSDS and CHEMINFO databases each have unique Advanced Search pages which allow you to search the specific fields for that database. For information on using the Advanced Search page, click on the link to Help - Field Searching presented on each Advanced Search page.

  When unsure of the spelling of a product name, use the * (truncation) or the ? (single character) wildcards as part of your search, e.g. *trichloroethane.

  For more information on searching, see "Help - Searching" in the sidebar.

Your search results are organized in a series of tabs. These tabs, and the toolbar at the top (and bottom) of the record display page, allow you to view and mark records retrieved for printing and saving.

On the MMS Results page:

• By default, the search results are sorted by relevance, with the most relevant records/documents listed first.

• You can easily re-sort these lists (in ascending or descending order) by clicking on the appropriate column heading:
  • MSDS results can be sorted by Score, Product Name(s), Manufacturer/Supplier, or Database (MSDS, FTSS, CHEMINFO, or CLIENT - which is exclusive to your custom collection).
  • CHEMINFO results can be sorted by Chemical Name or Score.

• To view the results from your custom collection, the MSDS, or the CHEMINFO databases:
  • click on the corresponding tab on the left side of the Results page, OR
  • click on the corresponding link under "Results summary" for MSDS or CHEMINFO at the top of the results list.

• When viewing results for CHEMINFO, click on the green SYN button next to each chemical, to easily view the CAS Registry Number(s) and list of synonyms.

For more information on search results, see "Help - Results & Toolbar" on the sidebar.

Keeping Your Custom Collection Current

For those collections that are part of the CCOHS MSDS/FTSS databases, we maintain contact with the suppliers to ensure their collections are current. MSDS and/or FTSS collections are accepted from the company or organization which prepares the MSDSs and is responsible for their content and currency. The complete MSDS collection is provided to CCOHS and all new and revised MSDS are also provided. Users can thereby be assured that the MSDS are the most current available. For more information on currency and dates found in MSDS, see the MSDS FAQs or the Product and Service FAQs in the sidebar.

For suppliers whose collection is not yet part of the CCOHS databases, we solicit their collections on behalf of the MMS clients using an authorization letter provided by the client.

For further information, contact CCOHS Client Services using the link below.