By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory Issues,ResearchOn June 2, 2017, the National Research Program “Opportunities and Risks of Nanomaterials” (NRP 64) will hold a closure event, parallel to the Swiss Nano Convention, which will be held June 1-2, 2017. NRP 64 began its research work in December 2010 and has studied the development, use, behavior, and degradation of synthetic nanomaterials, as… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Occupational Health and Safety Issues,ResearchOn March 7, 2017, the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST) published the final report for Project 2013-0059, “The Development and Validation of Methods for Sampling and Characterizing Engineered Nanomaterials in Air and on Workplace Surfaces.” The report is available in French, but the abstract is available in English. … Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in Federal,Research,United StatesThe Congressional Research Service (CRS) prepared a March 14, 2017, report entitled Science and Technology Issues in the 115th Congress. The report outlines science and technology policy issues that may come before the 115th Congress. The report notes that, given the rapid pace of science and technology advancement and its importance in many diverse public… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory Issues,Occupational Health and Safety Issues,ResearchNanoMONITOR’s first stakeholders’ day, April 4, 2017, will include a workshop on “Development of a real-time information and monitoring system to support the risk assessment of nanomaterials under REACH.” The overall aim of the NanoMONITOR project is to develop a prototype system to generate robust, accessible, comparable, and interoperable environmental and indoor air monitoring data… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory Issues,ResearchOn March 9, 2017, the NanoSafety Cluster published its 2017 Research Regulatory Roadmap. The purpose of the Roadmap is to identify both ongoing and complete activities associated with the development of regulations promoting the safety of nanomaterials. The Roadmap identifies research areas or priorities that need to be addressed further to facilitate this process. According… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Legal/Regulatory Issues,OECD,ResearchOn February 23, 2017, the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) issued a press release announcing a new report, commissioned by CIEL, the European Environmental Citizens’ Organization for Standardization (ECOS), and the Oeko-Institute, that “shows that most of the information made available by the Sponsorship Testing Programme of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in Federal,Occupational Health and Safety Issues,Research,United StatesOn February 27, 2017, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) announced the availability of a draft chapter to be published in the NIOSH Manual of Analytical Methods entitled “Analysis of Carbon Nanotubes and Nanofibers on Mixed Cellulose Ester Filters by Transmission Electron Microscopy” for public comment. The draft chapter provides standardized approaches for the… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Occupational Health and Safety Issues,ResearchThe Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST) published a news item on January 16, 2017, entitled “Nanoparticles — to handle with care.” IRSST states that although research is still in development, it appears that nanoparticles can enter the respiratory tract or penetrate through the skin and make their way to the bloodstream, which may carry the… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in OECD,ResearchThe Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published a report entitled Alternative Testing Strategies in Risk Assessment of Manufactured Nanomaterials: Current State of Knowledge and Research Needs to Advance Their Use. Experts from academia, industry, public interest groups, and government researched, analyzed, and discussed how alternative models could be used to advance the risk… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,ResearchThe fifth Nanosafe conference was held November 7-10, 2016, in Grenoble, France. The conference included panel discussions on responsible development with non-governmental organizations; urban particles mitigation: what is reasonably possible; and nanomedicine: benefit-risk. Topics addressed during the conference included: Measurement and characterization of nano objects; Exposure; Manufactured nano objects: Release from nano-enabled products; Safer by… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in Federal,Occupational Health and Safety Issues,Research,United StatesThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released on December 20, 2016, a white paper entitled Sustainability in the Workplace: A New Approach for Advancing Worker Safety and Health. The paper highlights the importance of including worker safety and health in the growing movement toward sustainability and corporate responsibility. According to the paper, research on… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in EU Member State,International,Legal/Regulatory Issues,ResearchThe Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) recently published an English version of its Action Plan Nanotechnology 2020. Based on the success of the Action Plan Nanotechnology over the previous ten years, the federal government will continue the Action Plan Nanotechnology for the next five years. Action Plan Nanotechnology 2020 is geared towards the… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in ResearchThe International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently published ISO/TR 18196:2016, “Nanotechnologies — Measurement technique matrix for the characterization of nano-objects.” The document provides a matrix intended to guide users to commercially available techniques relevant to the measurements of common physiochemical parameters for nano-objects. Some techniques are also applicable to nanostructured materials. As scientific advances are… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in Federal,Legal/Regulatory Issues,Research,United StatesOn November 1, 2016, the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) announced the release of the 2016 National Nanotechnology Initiative Strategic Plan. The 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act of 2003 requires National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) agencies to develop an updated Strategic Plan every three years. The 2016 Strategic Plan represents a consensus among the… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in Federal,Research,United StatesThe National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently announced the availability of the following publications: Nanotechnology: Delivering on the Promise is a two-volume American Chemical Society symposium report that discusses advances in nanotechnology and the value of precautionary risk management. Editors include NIOSH Associate Director for Nanotechnology Charles L. Geraci, Ph.D., CIH. Lynn… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in ResearchThe International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published ISO/TR 16196:2016, “Nanotechnologies — Compilation and description of sample preparation and dosing methods for engineered and manufactured nanomaterials.” The goal of the standard is to assist scientists and experts to understand, plan, choose, and address issues relevant to nanomaterials before and during toxicological testing. The descriptions of sample… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in EU Member State,International,Legal/Regulatory Issues,ResearchGermany Publishes Review of the Joint Research Strategy of the Higher Federal Authorities On September 19, 2016, the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) published a report entitled Review of the joint research strategy of the higher federal authorities — Nanomaterials and other advanced materials: Application safety and environmental compatibility. The report… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in Federal,Research,United StatesAn August 15, 2016, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) blog item describes EPA’s research on sunscreens containing engineered nanomaterials and how they might change when exposed to chemicals in pool water. According to EPA, many sunscreens contain titanium dioxide engineered nanomaterials, which are often coated with other materials such as aluminum hydroxide to shield skin… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,Research,United StatesThe synopsis is available for the June 6-7, 2016, U.S.-European Union (EU) Nano Environmental and Health Safety (NanoEHS) Research Efforts joint workshop. According to the synopsis, the first day of the workshop was devoted to an interactive nanoEHS scrimmage in which the groups collectively responded to a spill of a hypothetical nanotechnology-enabled product. U.S.-EU Communities… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in Federal,Research,United StatesThe National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is funding a new interdisciplinary Nanosafety Research Center at the T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The main focus of the new HSPH-NIEHS Center is to bring together scientists from across disciplines — material science, chemistry, exposure assessment, risk assessment, nanotoxicology, and nanobiology — to… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,ResearchThe European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) requested a review of the already marketed and in-development applications of nanomaterials in the agri/feed/food sectors. The results of the review are published in the August 2016 issue of Trends in Food Science & Technology in an article entitled “Nanomaterials for products and application in agriculture, feed and food.” … Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in International,ResearchTwo workshops, a European Union (EU)-U.S. Nano Environmental and Health Safety (NanoEHS) workshop and a nano modeling workshop, will be held in advance of the October 2016 OpenTox Euro Conference. The EU-U.S. NanoEHS workshop, “Enabling a Sustainable Harmonized Knowledge Infrastructure Supporting NanoEHS Assessment,” will be held October 24, 2016. The objective of the workshop is… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in Federal,Research,United StatesThe White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced on July 29, 2016, that federal agencies released a white paper describing the collective federal vision for the emerging and innovative solutions needed to realize the Nanotechnology-Inspired Grand Challenge for Future Computing announced in October 2015. The white paper, a collaboration by the U.S.… Continue Reading
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton on Posted in OECD,ResearchThe Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently published several dossier summaries for nanomaterials tested as part of its Testing Program of Manufactured Nanomaterials. Under the Program, sponsors tested 11 nanomaterials for: nanomaterial information/identification; physical-chemical properties and material characterization; environmental fate; toxicological and eco-toxicological effects; environmental toxicology; mammalian toxicology; and material safety. The new… Continue Reading
