Risk assessment of existing chemicals: are priorities and approaches stilladequate?

The risk assessment relating to the use of existing chemicals calls for a s ound knowledge of the substance characteristics. Yet, deficiencies in this field are enormous, as hardly a substance has so far been analysed complete ly. All concerned parties, viz. the manufacturers, users and the authoritie s, agree in judging the present situation unsatisfactory. Although there ar e numerous programmes all over the world devoted to the determination of su bstance characteristics, which yield new findings every day, the number of substances actually investigated remains low, because financial resources a re limited. To allow the majority of substances to be assessed in terms of their risk potential, it will be necessary to set new priorities and chose new approaches in the analysis of substances. Prioritising skin-resorptive substances or substances with skin contact could be a solution. In the same way, it would be possible to increase the information obtained from the sa me extent of analytical work by limiting the investigations to four or five central substance characteristics.