AICS Searching for Beginners

Names of chemicals on product labels or product data sheets will often not be listed on the AICS because they are common names not correct chemical names. However, the AICS lists common names in the Associated names field and these can be searched.

Products such as paints, cosmetics, adhesives and lubricants are mixtures of chemicals. To import a product into Australia you need to find out the names of all the chemicals in that product and find out if they are listed on the AICS. Then you need to find out if the chemicals are named correctly because the AICS mostly lists chemicals by their correct chemical names.

Example

A label for wine may state: Contains 13% alcohol.

If you perform an AICS search under “Chemical name equals alcohol” the following listing comes up:

AICS Listing

CAS No:	64-17-5
Chemical Name:	Ethanol
Molecular Formula:	C2H6O
Assessed by NICNAS:	No
Associated Names:	ALCOHOL Ethyl alcohol

In this case we were lucky that Alcohol is an associated name. The correct chemical name is Ethanol and this is not listed on wine labels. Notice also that Ethanol has a CAS No[1] of 64-17-5 which is another way of finding a chemical on the AICS. This is also not normally listed on wine labels.

Now let’s have a look at a common cosmetic, a moisturiser. Many common components of this moisturiser are listed on the AICS as associated names.

However, one of the components, sucrose cocoate, is not listed on the AICS as an associated name. But when we go to the European Commission’s CosIng database of cosmetic ingredients at http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/cosmetics/cosing/index.cfm we find the following listing:

INCI Name SUCROSE COCOATE

CAS # 91031-88-8

Chemical/IUPAC Name Fatty acids, coco, esters with sucrose

Functions

• ANTISTATIC

• EMULSIFYING

• SKIN CONDITIONING

From this we can see that SUCROSE COCOATE is an INCI name which refers to an international naming system for use on labels of cosmetic products developed by the European Cosmetic Industry.

Now if we look up the AICS with the CAS No 91031-88-8 we get:

CAS No:	91031-88-8
Chemical Name:	Fatty acids, coco, esters with sucrose
Molecular Formula:	C12H22O11
Assessed by NICNAS:	No
Associated Names:

Therefore, this cosmetic ingredient is listed on the AICS and can be imported to Australia as a component of cosmetic products.

Now, try this method with dimethonicol, a component of the same moisturiser which is listed on the CosIng database but is not listed on the AICS as an associated name.

A more difficult chemical in this same moisturiser is named:

D & C red #33 which is not found on CosIng or the AICS under this name.

However, putting this name into a web browser we find that it is listed on a number of sites including the US Department of Health and Human Services Household Products Database with the CAS No. 3567-66-6. Looking this up on the AICS yields:

CAS No:	3567-66-6
Chemical Name:	2,7-Naphthalenedisulfonic acid, 5-amino-4-hydroxy-3-(phenylazo)-, disodium salt
Molecular Formula:	C16H13N3O7S2.2Na
Assessed by NICNAS:	No
Associated Names:	ACID RED 33 CI 17200 D and C Red No. 33

We can see that the problem was that we should have looked up “red” and “33”  in separate name fields. From this we can see that looking up common names on a web browser can be a very useful tool.