Nano and Other Emerging Chemical Technologies Blog

The National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) is scheduled to publish on January 27, 2020, a Federal Register notice concerning public meetings under the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI).  According to the notice, the NNCO will hold one or more workshops, webinars, networks, and Community of Interest teleconferences between the publication date of the Federal Register notice and December 31, 2020.  Attendance information, including...

We are pleased to announce that Lynn L. Bergeson will present at the 9th Nano Conference hosted by the Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization (SNO) and Nanotechnology, Occupational and Environmental Health (NanOEH) Committee.  Abstracts for the October 4-6, 2020, Conference are due March 6, 2020.  As reported in our December 9, 2019, blog item, the Conference will address: Green/advanced synthetic materials and manufacturing; Nanomedicine, nanodrugs,...

As of January 1, 2020, companies must provide more information on nanomaterials on the European Union (EU) market under the updated Annexes to the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation.  ECHA organized a webinar on November 12, 2019, on the revised annexes and how companies can prepare to meet the new requirements.  ECHA states that the first part of the webinar explained what a nanoform is and how to build a set of similar...

Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) and its consulting affiliate The Acta Group (Acta®) published on January 9, 2020, our “Forecast for U.S. Federal and International Chemical Regulatory Policy 2020.”  In this richly detailed and comprehensive document, the legal, scientific, and regulatory professionals of B&C and Acta distill key trends in U.S. and global chemical law and policy, and provide our best informed judgment as to the shape of key developments we are likely to see...

On January 3, 2020, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) announced that it is expanding its podcast offerings in 2020.  The three podcast series will consist of interviews between Dr. Lisa Friedersdorf, Director of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO), and various experts, and will explore nanotechnology from three different perspectives: Stories from the NNI, a series that began in 2019, features conversations with experts from the NNI community who...

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has announced a call for abstract submissions for oral presentations, posters, and poster pitches at its colloquium on “A coordinated approach to assess the human health risks of micro- and nanoplastics in food,” which will be held in Lisbon on June 8-9, 2020.  EFSA states that “[m]icroplastics are small particles of plastic less than 5mm in size; nanoplastics are even smaller, ranging from 1 to 100 nanometres (N.B. 1 nanometre equals...

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published a Federal Register notice on December 17, 2019, requesting information on toxicological and physicochemical data of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) to evaluate in developing categorical occupational exposure limits (OEL).  84 Fed. Reg. 68935.  As reported in our December 16, 2019, blog item, NIOSH intends to develop categorical OELs based on the available scientific evidence regarding the...

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is scheduled to publish a Federal Register notice on December 17, 2019, requesting information on toxicological and physicochemical data of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) to evaluate in developing categorical occupational exposure limits (OEL).  According to the notice, NIOSH intends to develop categorical OELs based on the available scientific evidence regarding the hazard or safety of ENMs.  NIOSH seeks...

The European Commission’s (EC) Joint Research Center (JRC) recently published a JRC Science for Policy Report entitled Identification of nanomaterials through measurements that is intended to support the implementation of the EC’s Recommendation on the definition of nanomaterials (2011/696/EU).  It is a follow-up of a previous JRC Science for Policy Report on concepts and terms used in the definition.  The present report addresses identification of nanomaterials...

On December 11, 2019, the European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) published a Nanopinion entitled “The innovator, the regulator and the citizen — building public trust through transparent, empowered and safe innovation.”  Carlos Eduardo Lima da Cunha, the European Commission (EC), explains how the EU is supporting safe by design approaches to new technologies such as nanomaterials to deliver safer products to the market.  Lima da Cunha notes that the EU has...