A thorough and systematic risk assessment and risk management of chemicals can be performed only with complete information of all existing, commercially available chemicals. The size of this task is such that international programmes have been initiated, which collect data and coordinate the results. These programmes are the main sources of information concerning chemicals. They include:
Currently IRPTC has a data profile for about 800 chemicals. The profiles include 17 different categories of general and dangerous qualities of each chemical. The legal file records data from 12 different countries and 6 international organisations, and in 1989 it contained 42 000 records on more than 8000 chemicals (Lönngren, 1992).