Nano and Other Emerging Chemical Technologies Blog

The Swedish National Platform for Nanosafety (SweNanoSafe) will hold a workshop on November 29, 2021, on “Safe and Sustainable by Design: a prerequisite for achieving a circular economy.” SweNanoSafe states that “Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) is based on the consideration and minimization of uncertainties and risks to human health and the environment from an early stage of the innovation process and throughout the lifecycle of the innovation product.” The concept of SSbD...

The Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST) announced on August 9, 2021, publication of a study entitled Characterization of Unintentionally Released Nanometric Particles in Various Workplaces. The study characterizes unintentionally released nanoparticles (URNP) found in six workplaces — an underground mine, a truck repair shop, an underground transportation network, a foundry, a machine shop, and a wax casting shop — on the basis of...

On September 7, 2021, the European Commission (EC) Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks (SCHEER) posted a preliminary opinion on “Draft Environmental Quality Standards for Priority Substances under the Water Framework Directive” for silver and its compounds. The Water Framework Directive requires the EC to identify priority substances among those presenting significant risk to or via the aquatic environment and to set environmental quality standards (EQS) for...

Registration has opened for a September 22, 2021, webinar held by the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) on “What We Know about NanoEHS: Measurement and Characterization.” The webinar’s speakers will explore the impact of advances in nanomaterial measurement and characterization on the safe and responsible development of nanotechnology. Vincent Hackley, Research Chemist, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will moderate. The panel will include:...

As reported in our May 7, 2021, blog item, the European Commission (EC) held a targeted stakeholder consultation as part of its review of the Recommendation on the definition of a nanomaterial. The EC held the consultation to update, test, and verify the preliminary findings of its review, gathering further evidence and feedback from a wide range of stakeholders who have a role in application of the harmonized regulatory definition of nanomaterial in the European Union (EU)....

The National Research Center for the Working Environment (NFA) in Denmark will hold a course on October 10, 2019, on the Nano-Risk Governance Portal, a new portal for the risk management of nanomaterials.  NanoSafety Cluster Week will be held October 7-10, 2019, in Copenhagen, Denmark, and will include: October 7, 2019: caLIBRAte Final Conference — Building Confidence on Risk Assessment and Governance of Nanomaterials; October 8-9, 2019: Open Conference:...

According to Australia, after the first year of operation of the Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme (AICIS), the regulated industry and staff within the Office of Chemical Safety have identified “minor operational issues” that require amendments to the details set out in the Ministerial Rules. Australia is proposing targeted amendments to the Industrial Chemicals (General Rules) 2019 and the Industrial Chemicals (Consequential Amendments and Transitional...

ASTM recently announced that it published a standard, E3275, that seeks to familiarize laboratory scientists with background information and technical content necessary to image and identify engineered nanomaterials in cellular and noncellular samples. According to ASTM, the standard is specific to the use of the darkfield microscopy/hyperspectral imaging analysis technique. ASTM states that in this technique, the resulting sample analysis allows for direct visualization and...

On August 18, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued several significant new use rules (SNUR) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for chemical substances that were the subject of premanufacture notices (PMN), including the chemical substance identified generically as multiwalled carbon nanotubes (PMN P-18-182). 86 Fed. Reg. 46133. The SNUR requires persons who intend to manufacture (defined by statute to include import) or process multiwalled carbon nanotubes...

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a Scientific Opinion entitled “Safety assessment of the substance silver nanoparticles for use in food contact materials.” The EFSA Panel on Food Contact Materials, Enzymes and Processing Aids (CEP) assessed the safety of the additive silver nanoparticles intended to be used in plastics. All the silver particles were in the size range of 1-100 nanometers (nm), with about 15 nm mean diameter and 99% by number of particles below 20 nm. The...

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently published two standards for nanomaterials. ISO/TS 21633:2021, “Label-free impedance technology to assess the toxicity of nanomaterials in vitro,” describes a methodology of a label-free and real-time detection for non-invasive monitoring of cell-based assays to assess toxicity of nanomaterials to eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells. ISO/TS 23034:2021, “Nanotechnologies — Method to estimate cellular uptake of carbon...

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has updated its “Guidance on risk assessment of nanomaterials to be applied in the food and feed chain: human and animal health.” The updated guidance, published on August 3, 2021, covers the application areas within EFSA’s remit, including novel foods, food contact materials, food and feed additives, and pesticides. The guidance takes into account relevant scientific studies on physico‐chemical properties, exposure assessment and hazard...

As reported in our January 4, 2021, blog item, the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH®) Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances (TLV®-CS) Committee included carbon nanotubes on its 2021 list of chemical substances and other issues under study. Being placed on the under study list indicated that the TLV®-CS Committee had selected carbon nanotubes for development of a threshold limit value (TLV®). ACGIH® has now released its two-tier under...

On July 15, 2021, the European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) published a Nanopinion entitled “The ECHA Nanomaterials Expert Group (NMEG)” by Frank Le Curieux, Scientific Area Leader for Genotoxicity at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). Le Curieux provides a brief summary of the creation of NMEG and its history. NMEG’s current mandate is to provide informal and non-binding scientific and technical advice on questions related to nanomaterials or nanoforms of substances...

The January 29, 2021, issue of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) NCTR Research Highlights includes an item highlighting the National Center for Toxicological Research’s (NCTR) nanotechnology-related activities in 2020.  The activities include: Nanotechnology Standards:  Two work items developed by the NCTR Nanotechnology Core Facility (Nanocore) staff became standards in February 2019 and January 2020 (Standard Practice for Performing...

As reported in our May 7, 2021, blog item, the European Commission (EC) recently held a targeted stakeholder consultation to update, test, and verify the preliminary findings of its review of the 2011 Recommendation on the definition of a nanomaterial. According to a July 23, 2021, news item posted by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), in its response to the consultation, ANSES maintained that the changes proposed by the EC...

Pursuant to Article 16 (10) and (11) of Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 (Cosmetics Regulation), the European Commission (EC) is required to submit to the European Parliament and the Council an annual status report on the use of nanomaterials in cosmetic products and to review the Regulation’s provisions concerning nanomaterials. The July 22, 2021, report includes the following main findings: On average, ten new cosmetic products containing nanomaterials are placed on the European Union...

The European Commission’s (EC) Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) has begun a public comment period on its preliminary opinion on HAA299 (nano). The EC asked SCCS whether it considered HAA299 (nano) safe when used as an ultraviolet (UV) filter in cosmetic products up to a maximum concentration of ten percent. According to the preliminary opinion, SCCS considers that HAA299 (nano) as covered within the provided characteristics is safe when used as a UV filter in dermally...

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has launched a call for tenders to perform a study “Assessment of the potential impact of graphene, graphene oxide and other 2D materials on health, and the environment” as part of the European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON). According to the description, the goal of the study is to conduct a systematic literature review of the health and environmental effects of graphene, graphene oxide, and other two-dimensional (2D) materials, based on...

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published ISO/TR 22293:2021, “Evaluation of methods for assessing the release of nanomaterials from commercial, nanomaterial-containing polymer composites.” ISO states that an understanding of what is released from products containing manufactured nanomaterials “is critical to planning and managing safe development and use of those products.” The document aims to provide a guide to the information to be taken into account in...