Managing comprehensive and consistent material safety data sheet (MSDS) content for thousands of different chemical products is a significant challenge for any corporation. For a multinational company, the hazard information for each product should be consistent, no matter where it is sold. This paper will focus on one approach that has been successfully used to achieve this goal for the topics of fire and reactivity hazards. This paper discusses the development of an expert system to assist with the selection of fire and reactivity statements. The selection process is dependent upon the physical properties of the material as well as thermal stability and chemical reactivity information. In this paper, milestones in the development of this approach will be reviewed in addition to desirable features of expert system shells. The key properties used in the evaluations for each major topic are listed. Lessons learned from developing this approach are summarized and a few examples of topics triggered by selected properties are presented. (c) 2006 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process.