The European Inventory of Existing Commercial Substances (EINECS) originally listed all substances that were reported to be on the market in Europe between 1 January 1, 1971 and September 18, 1981. The substances placed on the market for the first time after this target date are "new". There are 100,196 different substances in the EINECS. EINECS numbers were assigned to each of the chemicals in the inventory. ELINCS numbers (European List of Notified Chemical Substances) are assigned to the "new" chemicals. EC Numbers is a term used to replace the outmoded "EINECS/ELINCS number" designation.
