IABR compiling a Database of volatile substances (such as in breath, flatus, skin, feces, urine)

The International Association for Breath Research (IABR), founded in 2005, is compiling a database of all known volatile substances in human and animal gases. It will include data on all gases no matter how they escape the body (breath, skin, flatus, urine, feces etc). The 'volatomics' database should be completed and viewable this year. The public will be able to view it on the IABR website

This will be another weapon in getting metabolic body odor and halitosis recognised, as well as hopefully stimulating interest and research. It will be a reference point that people can refer to. For instance, in convincing doctors, or in looking for previous records of certain compound smells (instead of having to look pubmed). It will be stronger evidence than when currently have.

Based on discussions held at the IABR Conference in Prague in September 2006, IABR has decided to support the creation of a comprehensive database of research on human and animal gases. IABR’s goal is to complete the design, beta testing and refinement of this “volatomics” database by 2009, after which it will be made accessible to both IABR members and the public via the IABR website.

The project is being coordinated by Norman Ratcliffe of the University of the West of England (UWE), who conceived this project in 2005 and had already begun working on it with the help of a graduate student, James Kingscott. He is now recruiting other IABR members to assist with either the design phase or the beta testing, or both phases, that will follow in 2009. Other members of the design committee include Anton Amann (Innsbruck), and Martin Pienz (Innsbruck), who has generously agreed to program the database for web-hosting in MySQL format...

...As currently envisaged, the database will contain data from studies of exhaled breath as well as other sources of endogenously-derived gases, such as skin, urine, faeces and flatulence. Each record in the database will be based on a specific report from some published source, such as a journal, book, conference program, or on-line publication.

Visitors to the IABR website will be able to both search existing records and enter new records using a series of related hierarchical forms which, to simplify data entry, will make extensive use of ‘pull down’ menus and pre-defined lookup tables.

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http://www.iabr.li/