Nano and Other Emerging Chemical Technologies Blog

On September 22, 2016, the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) will hold a webinar on the insurance industry and the challenges of underwriting nanotechnology and other emerging technologies.  NNCO Director Dr. Michael Meador will moderate the webinar discussion.  Speakers will include: Allen Gelwick, Executive Vice President of the Lockton Companies; Christie Sayes, Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Toxicology at Baylor University; David...

On September 13, 2016, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) announced in the Federal Register the availability of the draft 2016 NNI Strategic Plan for public comment.  The NNI Strategic Plan represents a consensus among NNI agencies on the high-level goals and priorities of the NNI, and on specific objectives to be pursued over at least the next three years.  The NNI Strategic Plan provides the framework under which individual NNI agencies conduct their own...

In early September 2016, the National Academies published a prepublication version of the Triennial Review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative.  The National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) asked the National Research Council (NRC) to conduct a triennial review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI).  In particular, the NRC was asked to assess:  (1) mechanisms to advance focused areas of nanotechnology toward advanced development and commercialization; and (2) the...

The European Commission (EC) requested a scientific opinion from the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) on styrene/acrylates copolymer and sodium styrene/acrylates copolymer in nano forms.  Under the Cosmetics Regulation, any cosmetic product containing a nanomaterial must be notified to the EC six months prior to being placed on the market.  If the EC has concerns about the safety of the nanomaterial, it will refer it to the SCCS for a full risk assessment....

The 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 of Research (COR) representatives planned the scrimmage, and the highlights and findings from...

The 2016 Global Summit on Regulatory Science (GSRS) will be held September 7-9, 2016, in Bethesda, Maryland.  Each GSRS meeting focuses on an area of regulatory science that would benefit from discussions aimed at identifying future research directions, and this GSRS meeting will focus on nanotechnology standards and applications, building on an October 11, 2015, GSRS workshop.  The 2015 workshop focused on physico-chemical measurements and standards relevant to...

The European Commission (EC) has requested a scientific opinion from the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) on colloidal silver (nano). Under the Cosmetics Regulation, any cosmetic product containing a nanomaterial must be notified to the EC six months prior to being placed on the market.  If the EC has concerns about the safety of the nanomaterial, it will refer it to the SCCS for a full risk assessment.  According to the EC, it has received 63 notifications of...

The 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 assess the potential environmental health and safety implications of engineered nanomaterials. ...

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) is developing a web-enabled information and screening tool intended to help small businesses integrating or developing nanoscale materials address uncertainty related to regulatory compliance and environment, health, and occupational safety (EHOS) risks.  To that end, ERDC is conducting a brief survey to identify resources, regulations, and risks that are most important to companies and other organizations involved in product and...

The 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.”  The article highlights include: Nanotechnology is applied in agricultural production, animal feed,...

Two 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 to facilitate networking, knowledge sharing, and idea development on the requirements and implementation...

Under European Commission (EC) funding, the European Committee for Standardization Technical Committee (CEN/TC) 352 — Nanotechnologies is developing guidelines relating to the safe waste management and disposal of deliberately manufactured nano-objects. The TC seeks responses from companies manufacturing or processing manufactured nano-objects by September 5, 2016, to an online questionnaire relating to current disposal practices for manufactured nano-objects in waste. The guidelines are...

On July 27, 2016, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and Health Canada (HC) began a consultation on a proposed prioritization approach for nanoscale forms of substances on the Domestic Substances List (DSL).  Canada will use the proposed approach to:  (1) establish a list of existing nanomaterials in Canada for prioritization; (2) identify how the information available will be used to inform prioritization of nanomaterials for risk assessment; and (3) outline the...

The 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. Department of Energy (DOE), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Defense (DOD), National...

On July 28, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed changes to the existing regulations governing significant new uses of chemical substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to align these regulations with revisions to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Hazard Communications Standard (HCS), as well as changes to the OSHA Respiratory Protection Standard and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) respirator...

On June 8, 2016, the House of Commons held its first reading of an Act to amend the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA) (nanotechnology) (C-287).  The bill would add Part 6.1 to CEPA primarily to implement procedures for the investigation and assessment of nanomaterials.  Member Peter Julian, New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP) House Leader, issued a June 8, 2016, press release stating that he first introduced the bill in 2010 and is “pleased to see...

The European Commission (EC) published on July 14, 2016, a regulation in the Official Journal of the European Union that amends Annex VI, the list of ultraviolet (UV) filters allowed in cosmetic products, of the cosmetics regulation.  Under the amendment, the entry for titanium dioxide is revised to state that the combined use of titanium dioxide and titanium dioxide (nano) must not exceed 25 percent maximum concentration in ready-for-use preparation.  The amendment...

On July 11, 2016, the NanoSafety Cluster (NSC) published the 2016 edition of the Compendium of Projects in the European NanoSafety Cluster.  According to NSC, the focus of investment and research “has moved increasingly towards predictive and high throughput approaches to nanosafety, including safety-by-design, bioinformatics, as well as the utilisation of nano-characterisation and safety datasets to support regulation and nanoproduct commercialisation.”  The 2016 Compendium contains...

On June 29, 2016, the European Commission (EC) provided a notice to the European Parliament regarding its response to a 2014 petition calling for a European Union (EU)-wide ban on microplastics and nanoparticles.  The petition summary states:  “Nanoparticles are so small that they penetrate cells effortlessly and can damage them, causing cancer.  Because the precautionary principle applies in the EU, the petitioner urges a ban on these small particles as soon as possible.”  In its...

The 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...