Computer-based data, toxicology services offered
Chemical & Engineering News · 1982
A new computer-based system to provide data and to predict the toxicity of chemicals is being readied for commercial on-line use by Comtex Scientific, an electronic database publisher located in New York City. In addition, the company plans eventually to introduce a much broader, computer-based service that will attempt to "short circuit" the normally slow path to wide dissemination of new scientific and technical information by providing access to such data in selected fields, including areas within chemistry, before formal manuscripts wend their ways through usual reviewing and publishing processes. Comtex's toxicity service is expected to be available by midyear. At first, the service will provide data for four widely used toxicity tests—acute toxicity (LD 50, based on oral doses in rats); mutagenicity, as based on the bacteria test developed by Bruce N. Ames at the University of California, Berkeley; carcinogenicity; and teratogenicity. Current data on about 2000 compounds already entered ...