The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is scheduled to announce in the January 8, 2013, Federal Register the availability of its 2012 Regulatory Agenda. EPA’s Regulatory Agenda includes the following notice concerning nanoscale materials: Nanoscale Materials; Chemical Substances When Manufactured, Imported, or Processed as Nanoscale Materials; Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements; Significant New Use Rule: EPA is developing a proposal to establish reporting...
January 3, 2013
Amendment to EC Regulation 1169/2011 Is “Null and Void”
The December 20, 2013, issue of the Official Journal of the European Union includes a corrigendum to the amendment to Regulation 1169/2011 concerning the provision of food information to consumers as regards the definition of engineered nanomaterials. The European Commission (EC) published a notice in the December 19, 2013, Official Journal of the European Union amending the food labeling regulation concerning the definition of engineered nanomaterials. The December 20, 2013, notice...
The Danish Consumer Council and the Danish Ecological Council, in cooperation with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) Environment, have developed a database intended to help consumers identify more than 1,200 products that may contain nanomaterials. The database is an inventory of products that contain nanomaterials or are marketed with the word “nano.” The website asks users to help “improve and expand” the database “by telling us about products that claim...
December 26, 2012
EPA Amends Definition of Clean Cellulosic Biomass
On December 20, 2012, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson signed a final rule setting forth EPA’s final decision on the issues for which it granted reconsideration pertaining to its March 21, 2011, final rule entitled “Standards of Performance for New Stationary Sources and Emissions Guidelines for Existing Sources: Commercial and Industrial Solid Waste Incineration Units.” The December 20, 2012, rule makes technical corrections to the March...
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is scheduled to publish in the December 19, 2012, Federal Register a request for information and comment on silver nanoparticles. According to the notice, NIOSH has initiated an evaluation of the scientific data on silver nanoparticles “to ascertain the potential health risks to workers and to identify gaps in knowledge so that appropriate laboratory and field research studies can be...
December 12, 2012
EPA and CPSC Collaborating on Nanomaterial Research
On December 11, 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced a research collaboration intended to assess potential impacts of nanomaterials on people’s health and the environment. According to EPA’s press release, the research is part of a “larger international effort” that includes: Identifying, characterizing and quantifying the origins of nanomaterials; Studying biological processes affected by...
December 7, 2012
EPA Determines Grain Sorghum Ethanol Qualifies as a Renewable Fuel
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson signed on November 30, 2012, a supplemental rule associated with the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program. The final rule contains a lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) analysis for grain sorghum ethanol and a regulatory determination that grain sorghum ethanol qualifies as a renewable fuel under the RFS Program. According to the rule, EPA’s analysis indicates that ethanol made from grain sorghum at dry mill facilities that...
December 6, 2012
Canada Adds Nanosubstance to DSL
In a November 21, 2012, Canada Gazette notice, Canada amended the Domestic Substances List (DSL). The amendments include the addition of cellulose, hydrogen sulphate, sodium salt, obtained from sulphuric acid hydrolysis of the bleached pulp, with the substance having the following characteristics: (a) Nominal length of 100 ± 50 nanometres; (b) Cross section dimension less than or equal to 10 nanometres; and (c) Sulphur content of greater than or equal to 0.5 percent and less than...
Environmental Law Network International’s (ELNI) recent issue of elni Review includes an article entitled “Law and innovation in the context of nanomaterials: Barriers to sustainable development? Results of an empirical study,” which examines to what degree the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation promotes innovations for sustainability through nanomaterials. The authors surveyed 37 companies based in Germany that...
December 3, 2012
EFSA Intends to Prepare Inventory of Food Additives in the Area of Nanotechnologies
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published in the October 10, 2012, Official Journal of the European Union a call for tender to prepare a background document on the current knowledge in the field of nanotechnology and prepare an inventory of food additives/food contact materials/feed additives applications of nanotechnologies currently used and/or reasonably foreseen to be used. According to the tender specifications, the tasks will include: Performing an extensive...