WASHINGTON - From acetone cyanohydrin to zinc phosphide, the Environmental Protection Agency put out a list of 402 acutely poisonous chemicals and urged communities to find out which ones they have and how to deal with them.

Local and state officials said they could not readily specify which of the substances are present in the Houston area, but Max McRae, chief of the Houston Fire Department's hazardous materials response team, said, "Almost every chemical that is made is made here, used here or transported through Houston."

The list of chemicals "is designed to help prevent tragedies similar to the one last year in Bhopal , India," the EPA said Monday, referring to the release of a toxic substance at a Union Carbide facility that killed more than 2,000 persons and injured thousands in December 1984.

The agency asked states and communities to work with industry to see where dangerous chemicals are made, stored or handled.

Houston area officials are already cooperating with an industry program, developed by the Chemical Manufacturers Association, to identify the presence of acutely toxic substances and provide information on how to deal with them in accidental releases, McRae said.

Companies will identify which highly toxic substances they handle and provide data sheets on those chemicals to the emergency management agencies in cities where they are located.

With that information in hand - similar in some ways to what the EPA is making available - government officials will be better able to respond to a call that a certain toxic chemical has leaked into the air, McRae said.

McRae and state, city and county environmental officials said their agencies will not be able to quickly identify which of the 402 chemicals are present in the vast Houston petrochemical complex.

And responses were mixed when the officials were asked whether they would use the EPA list to develop a comprehensive inventory of the chemicals present in Houston and their locations.

Spokesman Walter Bradley said the Texas Air Control Board is already compiling its own list of chemicals emitted both routinely and accidentally and developing a "multifaceted approach" to deal with such releases.

State officials will study the EPA list to "refine" their own list, he said, but the Air Control Board will "not necessarily" attempt to determine which of the 402 are present in Houston.

Herbert McKee, environmental control director in the Houston Health and Human Services Department, said he "doubted seriously" that its officials "could name anywhere near 402 chemicals" present locally, because much of their information is about broad chemical groups, not specific compounds.

Allison Peirce, Harris County pollution control chief, said, "It will be a big job to try to pinpoint some of this stuff.

"At certain times of the year, some companies have some material on hand, but not at other times. It isn't unusual at all for a company to manufacture something seasonally."

The simplest approach is for chemical companies to tell officials which of the 402 chemicals are on hand, Peirce said. That goal should be accomplished as the Chemical Manufacturers Association's program is carried out, McRae said.

EPA also released a thousand-page appendix with the substances' formulas, characteristics, threats to humans, behavior under certain circumstances, chemical synonyms and how to handle exposure to them.

The common criterion that got the chemicals on the list is that, if released in large enough quantity, they would immediately and seriously harm people nearby without emergency response steps. The agency also reported ways communities could determine the danger of chemicals not on the list.

"A chemical's potential danger may vary with its use, handling and circumstances of release," the agency said.

EPA Administrator Lee M. Thomas said the information is intended "to start a communication process among citizens, their local and state governments and local industries" to make them prepared enough to take the right steps in accidents. Federal officials will be helping local authorities identify hazards and work up plans.

Work on an emergency plan should start at the top of local government, Thomas recommended.

Local, state, federal and corporate officials recently participated in two EPA-sponsored workshops designed to assess and improve plans to deal with major accidental releases of highly toxic chemicals, McRae said, and some improvements in emergency response plans have already been made.

EPA's National Response Center has workers on duty around the clock to help people with chemical emergencies, and the Chemical Manufacturers Association provides response information through a hotline of its own, EPA said.

For three months, the agency will take public comment on its list and the community planning guidance.