[method269]

I'm wondering where I can find a website that has all the common chemicals, and it has information about the risks, effects, etc. of the chemicals.

I'm planning to make soaps..so it's important for me to understand the effects of the chemicals to the environment and my body.

Thanks.

[Corribus]

You can find good MSDSs at Sigma-Aldrich's website.  Fisher Scientific has decent ones as well.

Although they won't be called MSDSs for long because of new federal regulations.

[Borek]

Basically you need to google for "MSDS substance name".

[billnotgatez]

Example a GOOGLE search
msds potassium hydroxide
Gave me
http://fscimage.fishersci.com/msds/19431.htm
as one of its results

Plus for general knowledge I would have used WIKI search and typed in
potassium hydroxide
and got
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_hydroxide

by the way
I have noticed that in some cases the MSDS tend to give worst case scenarios
for instance a food additive may have dire warning but that would probably apply if the compound was misused or be in large amounts

[curiouscat]

I have noticed that in some cases the MSDS tend to give worst case scenarios
for instance a food additive may have dire warning but that would probably apply if the compound was misused or be in large amounts

Good approach is to look at the LD50. That's a good metric to judge how dangerous something is on the short term.

A worker who's going to work all life with a chemical needs a different metric almost by definition than someone with a casual exposure.