By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Research,United StatesThe European Commission’s (EC) Joint Research Center (JRC) announced on May 10, 2019, publication of an article entitled “Measuring particle size distribution of nanoparticle enabled medicinal products, the joint view of EUNCL and NCI-NCL. A step by step approach combining orthogonal measurements with increasing complexity” in the April 10, 2019, issue of the Journal of… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory IssuesThe Nanotechnology Industries Association (NIA), a “cross-sectoral, responsible voice for nanotechnology value chains and the global commercial eco-system,” hosts frequent webinars and then posts the webinars on its YouTube channel. On May 7, 2019, NIA held a webinar on “Nano in Action: Nanosafety.” Participants heard about the latest research and support tools intended to advance… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in EU Member State,International,ResearchOn April 29, 2019, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) announced InnoMat.Life, a joint research project to establish criteria for an efficient assessment of the human health and environmental risks of novel (nano) materials. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is providing 2.22 million euro to fund the project, which will be… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,OECD,ResearchThe Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) April 2019 issue of its Chemical Safety and Biosafety Progress Report includes an update on OECD’s work to determine the safety of manufactured nanomaterials. The Report notes that the applicability of OECD Test Guidelines for nanomaterials continues to be a major concern of the work of the… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Occupational Health and Safety Issues,ResearchThe International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published standard ISO/TS 21361:2019, “Nanotechnologies — Method to quantify air concentrations of carbon black and amorphous silica in the nanoparticle size range in a mixed dust manufacturing environment.” The standard provides guidelines to quantify and identify particles of carbon black and/or amorphous silica in air samples collected in… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory IssuesAn Advisory Group of 29 scientists from 18 countries met on March 25-27, 2019, to recommend priorities for the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs program during 2020-2024. The Advisory Group assessed the response to a public call for nominations and considered more than 170 unique candidate agents, including the recommended priorities remaining… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in EU Member State,International,Legal/Regulatory IssuesOn April 17, 2019, the Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition issued a press release announcing that France will prohibit foods containing food additive E171 (titanium dioxide) from being placed on the market beginning January 1, 2020. The press release cites the April 15, 2019, opinion from the Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation,… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,ResearchOn January 22-24, 2019, a Mexico-European Union (EU) workshop on nanosafety was held in Mexico. The aim of the workshop was to establish a stronger connection between the Mexican and European research communities within the context of bringing scientific information to the risk assessment, risk management, and policy levels. According to the workshop report, Mexico… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory IssuesThe European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) held a stakeholder workshop on April 1-2, 2019, on the implementation of its guidance on the risk assessment of applications of nanosciences and nanotechnologies in the food and feed chain. As reported in our July 5, 2018, blog item, “EFSA Publishes New Guidance on Nanotechnologies in Food and Feed,”… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Occupational Health and Safety Issues,United StatesTechConnect World Innovation Conference and Expo will be held June 17-19, 2019. It will include the third installment of a panel started three years ago, “Tools and Techniques: Applying the Best Health, Safety, and Environment Practices to Advanced Manufacturing.” The Symposium Co-Chairs include: Sally Tinkle, Senior Strategy and Policy Advisor, IDA/Science and Technology Policy Institute;… Continue Reading
By Carla N. Hutton and Lynn L. Bergeson on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory IssuesThe European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has posted the draft version of a guidance document, Appendix for nanoforms applicable to the Guidance on Registration and substance identification. The draft guidance is being reviewed by a Partner Expert Group (PEG). The draft Appendix has been developed to provide advice to registrants preparing registration dossiers that cover nanoforms. … Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,ResearchThe International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published standard ISO/TR 19733:2019, “Nanotechnologies — Matrix of properties and measurement techniques for graphene and related two-dimensional (2D) materials.” ISO states that since graphene was discovered in 2004, it has become one of the most attractive materials in application research and device industry due to its supreme material… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory Issues,ResearchOn March 15, 2019, the European Commission’s (EC) Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) published its preliminary opinion on the solubility of synthetic amorphous silica (SAS). The EC asked whether the SCCS considers that SAS are soluble (100 milligram per liter (mg/L) or higher) or degradable/non-persistent in biological systems in light of the nanomaterial definition… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Research,United StatesThe International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published standard ISO/TR 21386, “Nanotechnologies — Considerations for the measurement of nano-objects and their aggregates and agglomerates (NOAA) in environmental matrices.” The standard provides some considerations for the collection of environmental samples to be analyzed for manufactured NOAA, considerations to distinguish manufactured NOAA from background levels of naturally… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,ResearchThe European Commission’s (EC) Joint Research Center (JRC) opens its scientific laboratories and facilities, including its Nanobiotechnology Laboratory, to people working in academia and research organizations, industry, and small and medium enterprises (SME). JRC opened a call on February 1, 2019, for the Nanobiotechnology Laboratory for the following priority topics: Nanomaterial characterization, including their interactions… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,ResearchThe February 2019 issue of the European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA) Newsletter includes an interview with Eva Valsami-Jones, Professor of Environmental Nanoscience at the University of Birmingham and leader of the European Union (EU) NanoSafety Cluster Coordination Team, on research on the safety of nanomaterials. The NanoSafety Cluster coordinates the funding of research projects at the… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,ResearchOn February 18, 2019, the European Union (EU) NanoSafety Cluster (NSC) announced that it is supporting the Malta Initiative by linking various projects with activities developed within the Malta Initiative. According to NSC’s website, the Malta Initiative began in 2017, when Germany approached the EU Directorate-General (DG) for Research and Innovation to request political and… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory Issues,ResearchThe February 2019 issue of Computational Toxicology includes an article entitled “Grouping of multi-walled carbon nanotubes to read-across genotoxicity: A case study to evaluate the applicability of regulatory guidance.” The article describes a case study, performed by scientists at the European Commission’s (EC) Joint Research Center (JRC), to explore and illustrate read-across of genotoxicity data… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory IssuesThe European Commission’s (EC) Joint Research Center (JRC) published on February 13, 2019, a report entitled An overview of concepts and terms used in the European Commission’s definition of nanomaterial. The report supports the implementation of the EC’s Recommendation on a definition of nanomaterial (2011/696/EU). It addresses the definition’s key concepts and terms and discusses… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory IssuesThe European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) announced on January 30, 2019, that it has submitted a restriction proposal for microplastic particles that are intentionally added to mixtures used by consumers or professionals. According to ECHA, if adopted, the restriction could reduce the amount of microplastics released to the environment in the European Union (EU) “by about… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory IssuesThe European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will hold a stakeholder workshop on nanoscience and nanotechnology on April 1-2, 2019, in Parma, Italy. As reported in our July 5, 2018, blog item, “EFSA Publishes New Guidance on Nanotechnologies in Food and Feed,” in July 2018, EFSA published new guidance on how to assess the safety of… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory IssuesThe European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) provides information on nanomaterials to a wide audience on subjects including safety, innovation, and research. It also covers the existing EU legislation on nanomaterials and the presence and uses of specific substances on the EU market. EUON is currently conducting a survey to allow stakeholders to express… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory Issues,Occupational Health and Safety Issues,United StatesThe American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH®) Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances (TLV®-CS) Committee has included carbon nanotubes on its 2019 list of chemical substances and other issues under study. Being placed on the under study list indicates that the TLV®-CS Committee has selected carbon nanotubes for development of a threshold limit value… Continue Reading
