Download PDF
March 20, 2013

Industry Consortium for Environmental Measurement of Nanomaterials Publishes Practical Nano Measurement Guide

Lynn L. Bergeson

The Industry Consortium for Environmental Measurement of Nanomaterials (ICEMN) announced today the release of a series of articles to serve as a practical guide for state and federal regulatory agencies tasked with measuring engineered nanomaterials in the environment. The articles, published in the March 2013 special issue of Environmental Engineering Sciences, were prepared by academic and industrial scientists from ICEMN and focus on the techniques and issues around nanomaterial measurement in water, air, and soil. The series of articles collates sources of primary literature and summarizes secondary literature on experimental evidence of release of nanomaterials from nano-enabled products and the capture of nanomaterials in wastewater treatment, and reviews the methodological and measurement strategy issues involved in quantifying engineered nanomaterials in the environment.

ICEMN is a consortium of stakeholders involved with the production, assessment, and use of nanomaterials working collectively and cooperatively to provide information that would address environmental measurement of nanoscale materials and to enhance the state of the science in this regard. The Consortium includes representatives from industry, academia, and government groups, and is managed by B&C Consortia Management, L.L.C. In June 2011, ICEMN convened a workshop at the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal-EPA) to share information on existing and emerging measurement strategies and to dialogue on expectations for the future. This workshop, and the expressed desire by the California regulatory staff for more information on this critical issue, was the catalyst for the ICEMN publication.