Nano and Other Emerging Chemical Technologies Blog

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...

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:...

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...