Trade

Subscribe to Trade

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) established a Committee on Safety Management for Nanomaterials, which was scheduled to hold its first meeting on December 2, 2011. METI states that it established the Committee “on the basis of the results obtained from the project ‘Research and Development of Nanoparticle Characterization Methods’ commissioned by the New…

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) issued a June 29, 2011, report entitled Racing Ahead: U.S. Agri-Nanotechnology in the Absence of Regulation, which claims that at least 1,300 products with engineered nanotechnology materials (ENM) have been commercialized, “despite myriad uncertainties about the public health and environmental effects of ENMs.” According to the report, several…

On June 9, 2011, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced that the White House Emerging Technologies Interagency Policy Coordination Committee (ETIPC) has developed a set of principles specific to the regulation and oversight of applications of nanotechnology. The principles are intended to guide the development and implementation of policies, as described in the…

In an important and little noticed May 3, 2011, Federal Register notice, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) International Trade Administration (ITA) requested public comments concerning regulatory cooperation between the U.S. and the European Union (EU) that would help eliminate or reduce unnecessary divergences in regulation and in standards used in regulation that impede U.S.

On January 8, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extended until February 8, 2010, the comment period for its November 6, 2009, proposed significant new use rules (SNUR) for multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) and single-walled CNTs.  According to the January 8, 2010, notice, EPA received a request to extend the comment period.  On…

On April 14, 2009, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) issued a press release entitled “Nanotech Poses Possible Health and Safety Risk to Workers and Needs Regulation.” According to ACTU, “[t]he rapidly growing nanotechnology market in Australia requires urgent regulation to protect the health and safety of workers and consumers.” ACTU notes that, currently, there is no mandatory register in Australia of who is importing, manufacturing, supplying, or selling nanomaterials, and no requirement to label products.…

Continue Reading Australian Unions Call for Regulation of Nanomaterials

On June 26, 2008, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) passed a resolution on nanotechnologies and nanomaterials, which calls for the application of the precautionary principle. The resolution states that application of the precautionary principle is necessary to avoid “past mistakes [made] with putatively ‘miracle’ technologies and materials. According to ETUC, the number of workers coming into contact with nanomaterials will increase sharply as nanotechnologies are applied to difference industry sectors, including the chemical, pharmaceutical, and electronics industries. The ETUC urges the European Commission (EC) to amend the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation “so as to give better and wider coverage to all potentially manufacturable nanomaterials.” Because nanomaterials are manufactured or imported below the threshold of one tonne per year and may evade the REACH registration requirements, “ETUC demands that different thresholds and/or units (e.g., surface area per volume) are used for registration of nanomaterials under REACH.”…
Continue Reading ETUC Passes Resolution on Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials

In a December 3, 2007, letter, to the Secretaries of Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS), and Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection (DATCP), Wisconsin State Representative Terese Berceau (D) asks for their assistance in creating a policy “to address potential environmental problems associated with the emerging …

On August 27, 2007, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) published a notice in the Federal Register announcing that, pursuant to Section 6(a) of the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993, 15 U.S.C. Sections 4301 et seq., the Nanoparticle Flow Processing Consortium has filed written notifications simultaneously with the…