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Chemical
search
 Using
the Chemical Name Search
Using
the Chemical Category Search
Using
Both Search Modes Simultaneously
Troubleshooting
the Chemical Search
To access the
Chemical search, click on the blue Chemicals button
from the home page.
Using
the Chemical Name Search
The Chemical
Name Search allows the user to search for pesticide active
ingredients by name or identifying number. Active ingredients
are the chemicals in the formulated pesticide product that are
responsible for the pesticidal activities of the product.
What
you type in
To find information
on an active ingredient, type ONE of the following into
the Search box and click the "Search" button:
- The
name of a pesticide chemical or active ingredient. If you
don't know precisely how to spell the name, type in only
the first few letters of the name.
- The
Chemical
Abstract Service (CAS) registry number for a pesticide
chemical, a unique and universal identifier. Most, but not
all chemicals will have one.
-
The U.S.
EPA Pesticide Chemical (PC) Code for a pesticide chemical,
EPA's unique identifier.
- The
California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR)
Chemical Code for a pesticide chemical, DPR's unique
identifier.
There
are two additional choices you have for the Chemical
Name search:
-
You
can have the search engine find chemicals that Start with
the word or part of a word that you typed in. This is the
default setting. For example, if you type 2,4-D, you will
get a long list of 2,4-D derivatives, all of which start with
"2,4-D." Breakdown products of chemicals are listed
with the name of the parent chemical in the Chemical Synonyms
file and will be returned in a search for the parent.
NOTE:
If you are not certain how to spell the name of a chemical, try
typing in just the first part of the name, or even just
the first letter of the name (see Troubleshooting
your search).
-
Alternatively,
you can have the search engine find the word or part of a
word anywhere it occurs in a chemical name by clicking on
the Find anywhere in name button. Using Find anywhere
in name" may help with a problematic search that
doesn't work because the term you enter might not be the first
word of the chemical name. For example, if you wished to find
"tetrathiocarbonate, sodium salt" and typed in "tetrathiocarbonate,"
you would get no results because the name listed in the database
is "sodium tetrathiocarbonate." However, if you
click the Anywhere radio button, the search engine
looks for the search term anywhere in the name. With this
strategy, the chemical will be found, along with its breakdown
product, carbon disulfide.
What
the search engine does
The search engine searches our synonyms database for the word
(or part of a word) or number typed into the search box. The
synonyms database contains about 53,000 entries for about 6,000
chemicals and includes common chemical names, IUPAC names (for
some chemicals), and popular trade names. It also contains the
CAS registry number, the EPA PC Code and the California DPR
Chemical Code where available. In general, pesticide product
names are not a part of the Chemical Synonyms database, except
for the most common products (Roundup, Dursban, Sevin, etc.).
We now have chemical names in Portuguese, German, French, Dutch
and Hungarian for some chemicals and will be adding synonyms
from other languages over time.
The
search results list
After you
have clicked on the Search button, the search engine
returns a list of all chemicals in the PAN chemical database
that start with the search term you entered, unless you
clicked on
the Find anywhere in name button. The list of
results from a chemical search provides the chemical name and
use type, as well as the registration status of the chemical
in the U.S. A definition for any underlined term can be accessed
by clicking on the term. Clicking on the More button
will take you to a Chemical Information
page. You can print
this list or export
it to another data processing program such as Microsoft Excel
or Access.
Only 100 results are displayed on a page. Sometimes, a search
will give you more than 100 results.
To view the next set, click on the Next button
at either the top or the bottom of the page.
Top
of page
Using
the Chemical Category Search
The Chemical
Category Search allows the user to search by characteristics
of pesticide chemicals. This search mode is located at the bottom
of the Chemical Search page and can be reached by simply scrolling
down the page. There
are four different types of criteria you can specify:
The search
is an "and" type of search, where all of the
criteria must be met before the chemical is added to the results
list.
For example,
you could search for pesticides that meet the following criteria:
-
Use
Type: Insecticide
-
Toxicity:
Known/Probable Carcinogen
-
Regulatory
Category: U.S. EPA Registered
-
Chemical Classification:
Organochlorine
The end
result of this search is a list of U.S. EPA-registered organochlorine
insecticides that are listed as known or probable carcinogens.
You can print this
list or export it
to another data processing program such as Microsoft Excel or
Access.
The list
of results provides the name of the pesticide chemical, U.S.
EPA registration status, CAS number, U.S. EPA PC Code, CA
Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) chemical code, use
type, and chemical class.
A definition
for any underlined term can be accessed by clicking on the term.
Clicking on the name of a particular chemical will take you
to a Chemical Information page.
When you
do a Chemical Category search, you do not need
to use all four criteria---you may only want to use one or two.
For example, you might want a list of all Insecticides (Use
Type) that are PAN Bad Actors (Toxicity). Or perhaps you are
just interested in a list of all POPs chemicals (Regulatory
Category). There are a wide variety of ways in which these search
criteria can be used to select a list of pesticides you are
interested in. Experiment and see for yourself!
Top
of page
Using
both search types simultaneously
It is
possible to use both the Chemical Name search
and the Chemical Category search at the same
time. This can be useful if you don't exactly know the name
of the pesticide, but you know what letter it starts with and
some of its properties.
For
example, you are interested in finding a herbicide that starts
with an "a" that is a groundwater contaminant. You
can simply type the letter "a" in the search box and
select "Herbicide" as Use Type and "CA Ground
Water Contaminant, Known" as the Regulatory Category, leaving
the other two categories unused. The list of results narrows
your choices and makes it easier to find the chemical you are
interested in.
Top
of page
Troubleshooting
the Chemical Search
There are
a number of things to try if you are having trouble finding the
pesticide you are interested in:
Top
of page
Last updated
June 30, 2002
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