The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is supposed to maintain a database of dangerous chemicals to better inform the public of risks posed by the substances. But EPA officials have fallen so far behind on updating the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) that it would take 55 years at their current pace to get things in order. The agency had promised 18 months ago to implement reforms for IRIS, which was first created in 1985. But not enough progress has been made to properly profile more than 250 chemicals and determine their potential links to cancer, birth defects and other health problems.