DOHSbase Compare

In complex industrial environments, managing multiple hazardous substances requires precise and efficient chemical risk assessment tools. DOHSBase Compare, integrated within DOHSBase Online, empowers safety professionals to evaluate and prioritize chemical risks effectively through structured hazard ranking, ensuring a safer workplace.

When a production facility uses dozens or even hundreds of chemical substances, the question is not just whether each substance is hazardous – it is which substances pose the greatest risk and therefore deserve the most attention. DOHSBase Compare answers that question with a structured, reproducible chemical risk assessment methodology.

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What DOHSBase Compare Does for Chemical Risk Assessment

DOHSBase Compare is a chemical risk comparison tool that allows you to place multiple substances side by side and rank them according to their potential risk. Rather than evaluating each substance in isolation, you can build a comparison list of all chemicals used in a particular process, department, or facility and immediately see which ones require priority action.

The tool is fully integrated within DOHSBase Online. Any substance you look up in the main database can be added to a comparison list with a single click. Once your list is complete, DOHSBase Compare calculates a Risk Assessment Score (RAS) for each substance and presents the results in a ranked overview.

How It Works

The RAS combines two independent quantities into a single score: the TOX index (a uniform class assignment from H-phrases, with a choice between COSHH, TRGS 440, ECETOC and SOMS) and the TIX index (the logarithm of the ratio between saturation vapour concentration and exposure limit, scaled to 0–4). Their product TIX × TOX produces a person-independent score on a 0–16 scale: two occupational hygienists working from the same input get the same ranking. For substances without a formal OEL, DOHSBase Compare uses kick-off values as a conservative starting point; the most authoritative available limit is selected via the same limit value hierarchy as DOHSBase Online – whether that is a legal limit, a health-based value, a DNEL, or a kick-off value.

For the full technical exposition, including formulas, a worked example with phenol, methanol and toluene, and the historical lineage to Mutgeert’s 1979 RIR index, see the knowledge-base article TOX, TIX and RAS score: the methodology behind DOHSBase Compare.

Practical Use Cases

Prioritizing Chemical Inventories

Many organizations maintain substance registers with hundreds of entries. DOHSBase Compare allows you to rank the entire inventory by risk, so you can focus your risk assessment efforts, monitoring budgets, and control measures on the substances that matter most.

Supporting Substitution Decisions

When you are considering replacing a hazardous substance with a less harmful alternative, DOHSBase Compare provides an objective comparison. By placing the current substance and the proposed substitute side by side, you can verify that the alternative genuinely reduces risk rather than simply trading one hazard for another.

Demonstrating Due Diligence

Regulatory bodies expect employers to demonstrate that they have systematically assessed chemical risks in the workplace. A DOHSBase Compare report provides documented evidence of a structured, methodology-based risk ranking that meets the expectations of inspectors and auditors.

Process and Facility Assessments

When conducting workplace assessments, safety professionals can use DOHSBase Compare to quickly identify the highest-risk substances in a specific production area, prioritize measurement campaigns, and allocate exposure monitoring resources where they will have the greatest impact.

Integration with DOHSBase Online

DOHSBase Compare is not a separate product – it is a built-in feature of DOHSBase Online. This means that all the data behind the RAS calculation comes directly from the same expert-validated database used for individual substance lookups. There is no need to import data, maintain separate spreadsheets, or manually enter parameters. The substance data, limit values, hazard classifications, and physical-chemical properties are always current and consistent with the latest database update.