Lee S, Povey AC, Seed MJ, et al. Insufficient respiratory hazard identification in the safety data sheets for cleaning and disinfection products used in healthcare organisations across England and Wales. Occup Environ Med. 2021;78:293–295. doi:10.1136/oemed-2020-106881

This paper identified respiratory sensitisers or irritants that were not included on the Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) by using a Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship (QSAR) model and the list of asthmagens established by the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics (AOEC).

The QSAR model can only be applied to Low-Molecular-Weight (LMW) organic compounds. Since publication, the authors noted that a number of organic compounds were misclassified as inorganic compounds in the publication and as a consequence 13 additional sensitisiers were by the QSAR model. Following this change, the correct total number of sensitisers is 47 instead of 35 (1 sensitiser was already identified by the AOEC list in the publication). Also, the number of products containing at least one sensitisers increased from 173 to 178 (37.7% to 38.8%). These changes do not affect critically the findings in the publication.