Exposure data are often lacking in chemical risk reduction work. This report presents a method of processing confidential information in the Product Register of the Swedish Chemicals Inspectorate so that a non-confidential Exposure Index based on Swedish use of chemicals can be produced. It is intended that this index will supplement existing knowledge of industrial point sources by focusing primarily on diffuse emissions. A pilot study funded by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency which was carried out in 2002 laid the foundation for the ExposureIndex. The Swedish EPA has also funded this continuation project, the aim of which is to develop a complete method. Because of confidentiality concerns, the actual processing of data has to be done at the Product Register.

Usable information in the Product Register is the chemical composition of chemical products, the use category and branch category for products, quantities, consumer availability and label symbol. The Product Register contains annually updated information on 65,000 products containing around 15,000 different substances.

The methodology involves calculation in several stages. First, a "UseIndex" is calculated describing the general potential of a chemical to be released from a specific type of use. This is done for each specific quantity of chemical in the product concerned. UseIndex values are then added together for the substance concerned to give a substance-specific UseIndex. In the last step, quantitative data for a substance are used to calculate an "ExposureIndex". ExposureIndex values have been calculated for around 10,000 substances and give a rough indication of the probability of a recipient being exposed to a specific substance.

This methodology calculates index values for five different recipients representing "surface water", "soil", "air", "sewage treatment plant" and "human". As chemical/physical data cannot be included for so many substances, the method is only able to predict release to the immediate surroundings of various places where chemicals are used. These are therefore referred to as "primary recipients".