Nano and Other Emerging Chemical Technologies Blog

Registration has opened for a November 16, 2021, webinar held by the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) on “What We Know about NanoEHS: Risk Assessment and Risk Management.” The webinar’s speakers will explore the impact of advances in risk assessment and risk management on the safe and responsible development of nanotechnology. The panel will include:...

On October 11, 2021, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) announced the release of a scientific guide to assess the risks posed by nanomaterials in food. According to ANSES, engineered nanomaterials are used in the food sector as: The guide provides a risk assessment methodology for engineered nanomaterials used as food additives and ingredients with a nutritional function. ANSES notes that the European Food Safety Authority...

The European Commission (EC) announced on October 8, 2021, that the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed approved the EC’s proposal to ban the use of titanium dioxide (E171) as a food additive. The EC states that its proposal “is based on a scientific opinion by the European Food Safety Authority, which concluded that E171 could no longer be considered as safe when used as a food additive, in particular due to the fact that concerns regarding...

On October 8, 2021, the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) announced the release of the 2021 National Nanotechnology Initiative Strategic Plan, which outlines the goals, objectives, and actions for National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) over the next five years....

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has posted a new set of questions and answers (Q&A) for downstream users of nanoforms. The new Q&As, posted under Section I, include:...

In honor of National Nanotechnology Day, and as part of a series for its 50th anniversary, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has posted a blog item entitled “National Nanotechnology Day: A big day for small things.” NIOSH states that it has been at the forefront of efforts to characterize the potential hazards for those working with engineered nanomaterials and to ensure safe workplaces since the early 2000s, including the creation of the...

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) published a request for information (RFI) on October 5, 2021, requesting input on the development of a National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing. 86 Fed. Reg. 55022. Through the RFI, OSTP seeks input from the public on ways to improve government coordination and on long-term guidance for federal programs and activities in support of U.S. manufacturing competitiveness. According to the RFI, advanced manufacturing is a...

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: The Nano-Risk Governance Portal will launch in October 2019.  Funded by the European Union’s (EU) Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program...

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...

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:...

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: The report states that aligning the nanomaterial definition in the Cosmetics Regulation with a...

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...

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,...

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...

On July 13, 2021, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) announced the availability of a draft technical report entitled Approaches to Developing Occupational Exposure Limits or Bands for Engineered Nanomaterials: User Guide and Technical Report. 86 Fed. Reg. 36748. NIOSH states that the draft report describes an evidence-based approach to evaluate the scientific information available to derive occupational exposure limits, or bands, for engineered...

NanoHarmony aims to support the development of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) test guidelines (TG) and guidance documents (GD) for eight endpoints where nanomaterial-adapted test methods have been identified as a regulatory priority. NanoHarmony states that it is looking to create guidance for the development of other TGs and GDs in the future that will create a more efficient pathway to develop these. To help learn best practice in this area, the NanoHarmony...

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has begun a public consultation on a harmonized classification and labeling (CLH) proposal for multi-walled carbon tubes (synthetic graphite in tubular shape) with a geometric tube diameter range ≥ 30 nanometers (nm) to < 3 micrometers (μm) and a length ≥ 5 μm and aspect ratio > 3:1, including multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWC(N)T). The dossier submitted by Germany’s Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) states that the...

The European Commission (EC) has requested a scientific opinion from the Scientific Committee for Consumer Safety (SCCS) on fullerenes and hydroxylated fullerenes. According to the request, the EC has received 19 notifications under Article 16 of the Cosmetics Regulation for cosmetic products containing fullerenes and hydroxylated fullerenes. The request states that these ingredients “are reported in CosIng database with the function of ‘antimicrobial’ and ‘skin...

On June 26, 2019, the Council of the European Union (EU) announced that it adopted conclusions on chemicals intended to “offer political guidance on the development of a sustainable EU chemicals policy strategy.”  The June 26, 2019, press release notes that the conclusions address in particular the topics of Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation, endocrine disruptors, nanomaterials, and pharmaceuticals.  According to the...

The European Commission’s (EC) Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) published a final opinion on June 28, 2021, on gold (nano), colloidal gold (nano), gold thioethylamino hyaluronic acid (nano), and acetyl heptapeptide-9 colloidal gold (nano). The EC asked SCCS whether the nanomaterials gold, colloidal gold, gold thioethylamino hyaluronic acid, and acetyl heptapeptide-9 colloidal gold are safe when used in leave-on skin cosmetic products according to the maximum concentrations and...

On June 28, 2021, the European Commission’s (EC) Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) published its final opinion on platinum (nano), colloidal platinum (nano), and acetyl tetrapeptide-17 colloidal platinum (nano). The EC asked SCCS whether it considers the nanomaterials A (platinum and colloidal platinum ) and B (acetyl tetrapeptide-17 (and) colloidal platinum) safe when used in leave-on cosmetic products according to the maximum concentrations and specifications reported,...

On August 1-2, 2019, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) will hold “The Future of the NNI:  A Stakeholder Workshop.”  The NNI has played a pivotal role in fostering and advancing a dynamic nanotechnology ecosystem in support of the initiative’s four goals:  advance world-class research; foster commercialization; develop and sustain research infrastructure; and support the responsible development of nanotechnology.  Building on this foundation, experts from...

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published standard ISO/TS 22292:2021, “Nanotechnologies — 3D image reconstruction of rod-supported nano-objects using transmission electron microscopy.” ISO states that the standard provides guidance for sample preparation, data acquisition by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), data processing, and three-dimensional (3D) image reconstruction to measure size and shape parameters of nano-objects on rod-shaped supports....

The SUSNANOFAB project, funded by the European Union’s (EU) Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program, is conducting a survey on industrial needs. The SUSNANOFAB project intends to create a nanofabrication ecosystem that will include an integrated roadmap of the relevant public and private initiatives at the EU level and with international cooperation. According to SUSNANOFAB, this roadmap will define a common strategy intended to enable “all pre-competitive conditions for the...

On June 28, 2021, Gov4Nano will hold a workshop on the GRACIOUS approach to the quality assessment of nanosafety data. GRACIOUS, a European Union (EU) H2020 project, has proposed a methodology to facilitate the evaluation of quality and completeness for sets of nanomaterial physicochemical and (eco)toxicological data based on established criteria, i.e., completeness, reliability, relevance, and adequacy. Gov4Nano states that this approach “is unique in the sense that it can...

On June 3, 2021, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) published an interview with Aurélie Niaudet, who is in charge of assessing the risks associated with physical agents. Niaudet states that nanomaterials have novel properties that “are highly sought after and increasingly exploited, but can also induce specific types of behaviour when interacting with humans or the environment.” After the human body is exposed, “there is then the question...

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has published standard ISO/TS 20660:2019, “Nanotechnologies — Antibacterial silver nanoparticles — Specification of characteristics and measurement methods.”  The standard provides guidance for the specification of characteristics and relevant measurement methods for silver nanoparticles in powder or colloidal forms that are intended for antibacterial applications in nanotechnology.  ISO states that the standard is...

On May 31, 2021, the European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) published a Nanopinion entitled “Updating our language: why we should not paint all nanoforms with the same brush” by Chiara Venturini, Director General of the Nanotechnology Industries Association (NIA). Venturini reviews how the EU’s language has evolved. In 2011, the European Commission (EC) adopted a definition that describes a nanomaterial as a material at the nanoscale. In 2020, the EC amended Annex II...

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), as part of the activities of the European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON), is conducting a stakeholder survey on the substances available as nanomaterials in the EU market. The survey includes a market study of the nanomaterials, including substances, uses, volumes, and key operators in the EU. According to EUON’s May 21, 2021, news item, the survey aims to provide an overview of the substances that are available as...

Registration has opened for a June 8, 2021, webinar held by the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative on “What We Know about NanoEHS: Human Health.” The webinar will feature experts from diverse disciplines who will share their perspectives on key findings on the effects of engineered nanomaterials on human health. Janet Carter, Senior Scientist, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), will moderate. The panel will include: NNI has posted videos with closed...

The U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) will hold a webinar on June 2, 2021, on nanosensors for food and agriculture. NNI states that nanotechnology-enabled sensors (nanosensors) “are promising tools to advance precision agriculture and support a safe and robust food supply chain, from farm to fork.” Panelists will discuss how the development and deployment of nanosensors could transform agriculture and food safety. They will highlight the state of the science,...

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has published Current Intelligence Bulletin 70: Health Effects of Occupational Exposure to Silver Nanomaterials. According to the Current Intelligence Bulletin (CIB), NIOSH assessed potential health risk from exposure to silver nanomaterials by evaluating more than 100 studies of silver nanomaterials in animals or cells. The CIB states that recent studies in animals have demonstrated that biologic activity and potential...

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is in the process of updating its guidance on the information requirements and chemical safety assessment (IR&CSA) for nanoforms under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation. ECHA has developed three appendices concerning information requirements (appendices to IR&CSA Guidance Chapters R.7a, R.7b, and R.7c) to provide advice to registrants for use when preparing REACH registration dossiers that...

On May 6, 2021, the European Food Safety Association (EFSA) announced that E171 is no longer considered safe when used as a food additive.  The European Commission (EC) asked EFSA to update its safety assessment of the food additive titanium dioxide (E171).  EFSA states:  “Taking into account all available scientific studies and data, the Panel [on Food Additives and Flavorings] concluded that titanium dioxide can no longer be considered safe as a food additive. ...

In 2011, the European Commission (EC) adopted a Recommendation on the definition of a nanomaterial.  The Recommendation invites member states, European Union (EU) agencies, and economic operators to use the definition “in the adoption and implementation of legislation and policy and research programmes concerning products of nanotechnologies.”  The EC is now reviewing its Recommendation.  It has launched a targeted stakeholder consultation to update, test, and...

In fall 2020, the Swedish National Platform for Nanosafety (SweNanoSafe) organized three workshops on education within nanosafety, with the goal of starting and consolidating an education network.  The first workshop focused on the need for education in nanosafety, the second workshop was on available education on nanosafety in Sweden, and the third workshop discussed concrete opportunities to take various education efforts one step further.  On May 5, 2021, SweNanoSafe...

On April 29, 2021, the European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) published a Nanopinion entitled “Biotransformation of nanomaterials while transferring in the food chain” by Dr. Fazel A. Monikh.  As the application of nanomaterials increases, more of these materials are released in the environment.  Monikh states that some nanomaterials that are persistent in the environment raise concerns as they can enter organisms’ bodies, accumulate in their organs, and...