The ISS National Inventory of Chemical Substances (INSC).

The INSC (Inventario Nazionale delle Sostanze Chimiche), a factual data bank, produced by Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), consists of an electronic tool on chemical information developed for routine and emergency purposes. Historical background, current status and future perspectives of INSC are discussed. The structure and the feature of INSC are briefly examined. Aspects of information retrieval and the criteria for inclusion of data and priority selection are also considered.

The ISS Carcinogens Data Bank (BDC).

The Data Bank on Carcinogens (Banca Dati Cancerogeni, BDC) is a factual data bank, available on the Istituto Superiore di Sanità website, aimed at supporting the risk management decision making of central and local administrators. It can also represent a valuable tool for industry. The available information on carcinogenicity evaluations/classifications produced by European Union and by other institutions (IARC, USEPA, NTP, CCTN) is presented in a concise form accompanied by bibliographic references enabling the users to consult the original sources and, in some cases, to be directly connected to the relevant website. The classifications carried out by each organization in accordance with its own criteria assign the examined agents to specific qualitative categories and do not include quantitative assessment. BDC intends to provide an easy tool for experts, researchers and risk managers dealing with carcinogenic agents.

The ISS Sensitizing Agents Data Bank (BDS).

The Istituto Superiore Sanità has developed a data bank on sensitizing substances (Banca Dati Sensibilizzanti, BDS), available on website (www.iss.it/bdse/), sharing complete, controlled and updated information coming from different sources, such as scientific publications, international agencies and governmental or non governmental organizations. It is worthwhile that the main objective of the BDS is not the classification of sensitizing or potentially sensitizing agents within specific risk classes, but it is essentially to provide concise and non confidential information related to this endpoint. At present, the BDS includes: all the substances officially classified by European Union, (Annex I to Directive 67/548/EEC), some substances listed in I (Directive 67/548/EEC) for endpoints different than "sensitization" but indicated as sensitizers by other relevant institutions, all the substances indicated as sensitizers by relevant agencies or institutions (ACGIH, DFG), some substances indicted as sensitizers by industry and other non-governmental organizations (ETAD and HERA), all the substances regarded as "potentially sensitizing dyes" by the Commission of the European Community for the award of the eco-label to textile products, some substances for which, even in the absence of any categorization by Union, ACGIH or DFG, it is not possible to exclude a sensitizing potential on the basis of reliable documents.

The ISS Reclamation Data Bank.

Since the issue of the first regulations concerning the remediation of contaminated sites, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, on the basis of specific requests, has drawn up various technical opinions regarding the proposed reference values (quality standards) for soils and underground waters, to be achieved when remediating contaminated sites, for substances for which no standard limit values did not exist at that time. These reference values, widely used throughout the country and accepted and adopted as "remediation aim" values by various territorial bodies responsible for the approval and monitoring of remediation projects, have been collected in a specific reclamation oriented data bank known as the "Banca Dati Bonifiche (BDB)" (Reclamation Data Bank). The BDB contains the related standardized "rationale" for each reference value, in order to serve as a useful reference for the national bodies concerned with the remediation of contaminated sites.