Information for chemical management. The approach of the International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals.

The International Register of Potentially Toxic Chemicals (IRPTC) chemical data bank system was developed with the view to covering all the sets of information needed for the identification of hazard and providing a useful tool for risk assessment. The IRPTC data bank has been conceived to allow countries to establish their own information management system for national chemical management and to serve a worldwide information exchange network. The electronic search facilities help to provide tailor made data sets to fit the information needs of the different groups and individuals. There is a great variety of information users, ranging from those dealing with the hazard assessment and risk management to the exposed workers and citizens concerned about the effects of the emissions from the smokestack of the neighbouring factory. The need for authoritative information is particularly crucial for developing countries which do not have the advanced technological means or resources to establish mainframe computing links with IRPTC. A personal computer version has therefore been developed to give these governments and institutions access to the same data at an extensively reduced cost.