An "Advisory Committee on Existing Chemicals of Environmental Relevance" (BUA) was appointed 1982 by the German Chemical Society. The members have developed, from a practical point of view, a selective procedure for these chemicals (in total about 100,000 in the European Community) which, in a first phase, resulted in two lists of together 135 substances. In a second phase, based on a survey of the German Chemical Industry Association, a third list of ca. 435 substances was established in 1989 to 1993. The data necessary for the evaluation of these chemicals are collected, critically assessed and published regulary as BUA-Reports. Up-to-date, reports on nearly 290 substances have been published. They may serve as a reliable aid for the instignation of measures, if necessary, to responsible persons and competent authorities.