Interactive Learning Paradigms, Incorporated

About ILPI's Safety Data Sheet Resource

Some History and Philosophy

In October of 1995, Dr. Robert Toreki, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kentucky, was giving one of many brown bag lunches to other campus units to showcase a new technology Rob was using in his teaching, the Worldwide Web. Rob was not only one of the first instructors anywhere to use the web as a teaching tool, he wrote the very first complete chemistry department web site.

One of the attendees that day was Paul Restivo, UK's Director of the Environmental Health and Safety Office and he mentioned that people were always asking him where they could find Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS's) on the internet. Search engines of the time such as Yahoo! were nothing like they were today (Google would not debut for 3 more years) and web directories were just beginning to exist.

In his "spare" time, Rob turned a bunch of link suggestions from Paul into a single resource page that listed the best places to find MSDS's on the Internet. The page was originally served from the U of KY main web server, but moved to the Chemistry Department server in June of 1996. In July of 1998, it moved to Interactive Learning Paradigms, Incorporated's web site where it has remained ever since.

That original page, Where to Find MSDS's on the Internet, was the #1 resource for finding (M)SDS information for many years. Because of its popularity, ILPI received numerous audience questions so we developed the MSDS FAQ (frequently asked questions) list. Likewise, as our audience asked us what various arcane terms on their SDS's meant, we developed a 500+ term hyperlinked glossary of common SDS terms. The SDS HyperGlossary is more of an encyclopedia than a glossary, and it contains carefully curated information on each of the topics.

In response to visitors needing hired help with managing their (M)SDS needs we developed lists of commercial SDS suppliers and translators as well as SDS software and databases. We also added over 340 relevant government regulations and interpretations, and a list of SDS and safety-related books. And all of these resources are highly hyperlinked and cross-referenced in the way that hypertext was truly meant to be used.

Repeated audience inquiries for (M)SDS-related posters, signs, binders etc. led ILPI to launch an on-line store in 2004, Safety Emporium, which supplies SDS binders, labels, posters and over 7,000 other related laboratory and safety items to customers in 114 different countries, including Antarctica.

All of this information and resources are available for free. This stems from a personal and corporate belief that information that saves lives and prevents injury should be freely available to all.

Usage and Reach

Considering that we eschew social media, the usage stats for our Safety Data Sheet resource pages are pretty astonishing. We stopped counting page views when they hit 100 million, and Google reports that we receive several million each month.

Our resources are linked to from tens of thousands of other web sites around the globe including:

So many "high quality" sites link to us that most search engines consider the ilpi.com domain to be a "respected authority" site, particularly for topics related to safety. It's no wonder this resource has been featured in numerous trade journals, including one that called it "one of the two best general MSDS sites on the Internet", as well as the AAAS publication, Science. For interview and reprint requests, please contact Us.

Intrigued?

If you are interested in advertising on any of our pages or would like shelf space in our on-line store, simply contact us for pricing and availability. We have packages starting at just $40 USD per month.

a divider