AbstractThe systematic scoring of chemicals is a tool to assist in the consistent comparison and ordering of the universe of industrial chemicals. Scoring at an early stage of assessment could identify most of the chemicals that have a high probability for requiring review for possible control or testing. This report describes the results of a three‐day workshop held in Washington, D.C., August 13–15, 1979, to develop a system to select chemicals for preliminary assessments according to their hazard to the environment. The system combines environmental release and distribution potential with mobility and persistence scores in the three environmental media, air, soil, and water. The components of the environmental exposure score are then combined with toxicity by using multipliers (3x, 2x, or 1x) which are assigned on the basis of the concentration at which an adverse effect in environmental species is observed. The system requires minimal information inputs, relies on expert professional judgement and is recognized as an initial phase of selecting candidates for additional assessm