On June 25, 2008, the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) and the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) released a report entitled Assuring the Safety of Nanomaterials in Food Packaging: The Regulatory Process and Key Issues, which concludes that engineered nanoscale materials use in food packaging materials raise new safety evaluation challenges for regulators and industry. The report uses hypothetical food packaging applications to examine how the regulatory process would apply to...
Category: General
On June 17, 2008, the European Commission (EC) issued a press release entitled “Commission starts public dialogue on nanotechnologies — tapping economic and environmental potential through safe products.” According to the EC, while current European Union (EU) legislation “covers in principle” the environment, health, and safety issues concerning nanomaterials, “there is further need for research and international cooperation.” EC will begin a consultation with...
We are pleased to announce that Lynn L. Bergeson will be speaking on June 2, 2008, at the Nano Science and Technology Institute (NSTI) Nanotech 2008 conference, which will run from June 1-5, 2008. She will be participating in a session on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program. In addition, she is a co-presenter of the poster entitled “Nanomaterials down the drain: perception and reality.”
On May 19, 2008, the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) posted its sixth quarterly report on the Voluntary Reporting Scheme (VRS) for engineered nanoscale materials. According to the report, DEFRA received no new submissions this quarter, and to date has received only nine submissions since the VRS’s launch in September 2006: seven from industry, and two from academia. The report states that DEFRA, in partnership with the United Kingdom Technology Strategy Board,...
May 22, 2008
EPA Seeks Participants for In-Depth Portion of NMSP
On May 20, 2006, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stated that it would like to initiate discussions regarding testing of nanoscale materials under the in-depth portion of the Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program (NMSP). Under the NMSP, companies that manufacture, import, process, or use nanoscale materials for commercial purposes voluntarily submit data to EPA and also participate in the development of additional data. To date, EPA has received three submissions for...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) May 5, 2008, Unified Agenda includes an item regarding the Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program (NMSP), which is a voluntary program that EPA established to assemble existing data and information from manufacturers and processors of certain nanoscale materials. The notice states that, under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA has the authority to require the development of data necessary for risk assessment when statutory...
On May 1, 2008, the International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA), together with 13 other consumer, health, and environmental groups, filed a petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) demanding that EPA regulate as pesticides under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and that it take additional actions under FIFRA and other environmental statutes concerning, consumer products containing nanoscale silver. ICTA also released...
April 23, 2008
Senate Committee Will Hold NNI Reauthorization Hearing
On April 24, 2008, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will hold a hearing entitled “National Nanotechnology Initiative: Charting the Course for Reauthorization.” The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) currently receives approximately $1.5 billion. The hearing will examine the five-year period since the NNI was initially authorized in 2003 and explore issues the Committee should consider for the next reauthorization. Witnesses scheduled...
April 21, 2008
Congressional Briefing Held on Nanotechnology
On April 18, 2008, The American Chemical Society Science & the Congress Project, The Society of Toxicology, and The Society for Risk Analysis sponsored a Congressional briefing entitled “Nanotechnology 102: Understanding Congress’ Role.” Panelists included Kristen Kulinowski, Director of the International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON); J. Clarence (Terry) Davies, Senior Advisor, Woodrow Wilson Center Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN); James Cooper, Vice President of...
The April 1, 2008, issue of Environmental Health Perspectives (EHP) includes correspondence regarding a 2007 EHP article concerning the aggregation and toxicology of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, as well as the authors’ response. The issue also includes an article entitled “Ecological Uptake and Depuration of Carbon Nanotubes by Lumbriculus variegatus.” The authors synthesized radioactively labeled nanotubes using a novel methane chemical vapor deposition procedure. According...
April 7, 2008
SVTC Calls for Increased Regulation of Nanomaterials
On April 2, 2008, the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (SVTC) released a report entitled Regulating Emerging Technologies in Silicon Valley and Beyond: Lessons Learned from 1981 Chemical Spills in the Electronics Industry and Implications for Regulating Nanotechnology. According to SVTC, the emergence of nanotechnology is similar to the electronics industry in the early 1980s, when new manufacturing processes ultimately resulted in groundwater pollution throughout Santa Clara...
There is an Alice-in-Wonderland awe associated with nanotechnology. While the technology is both exciting and hopeful for many good reasons, for businesses, and the lawyers who counsel them, the lack of certainty in areas involving potential risk is unsettling. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is only now beginning to think through how best to apply the authority it has under the traditional environmental statutes, and to adopt regulatory programs and policies to address the...
March 28, 2008
NSF-Funded Television Series to Air in April 2008
“Nanotechnology: The Power of Small,” the first major television series to examine the implications of advances in nanotechnology, will begin airing on local public broadcasting stations in April 2008. The series is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the presenting station and grantee for the series is Oregon Public Broadcasting. In the episodes, award-winning National Public Radio correspondent John Hockenberry asks policymakers, scientists, journalists,...
March 19, 2008
DEFRA Releases Updated VRS Guidance
On March 12, 2008, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) released a supplementary guidance document for the Voluntary Reporting Scheme (VRS). DEFRA prepared the supplementary guidance document to complement the existing VRS guidance. Chapter 2 describes the rationale and benefits of the VRS. Chapter 3 provides a specific list of the relevant physical, chemical, toxicological, and ecotoxicological data to include when reporting under the...
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) will hold a Nanotechnology Customer Partnership meeting on April 22, 2008. According to PTO, it intends the Partnership to provide a forum to share ideas, experiences, and insights between individual users and PTO. PTO states that it does not intend to use the Partnership to arrive at a group consensus. Individual opinions are sought from varying participants, and the meetings are intended to be informal in nature. Due to space limitations, PTO...
A recent report released by Friends of the Earth (FOE) calls for a moratorium “on the further commercial release of food products, food packaging, food contact materials and agrochemicals that contain manufactured nanomaterials until nanotechnology-specific safety laws are established and the public is involved in decision making.” The report, entitled Out of the Laboratory and on to Our Plates: Nanotechnology in Food & Agriculture, lists 104 commercially available foods,...
On April 17-18, 2008, the European Commission (EC) will hold a workshop on research on the safety of nanomaterials. The main objectives of the workshop are: To increase interactions between researchers to enhance networking, sharing of outcomes of the research projects, and boosting synergies between research groups across Europe and abroad; To improve communication of the results of research to risk assessment bodies and other interested parties, providing sound science-based...
March 10, 2008
EPA Will Hold Meeting on Industry-Government Partnerships
On February 29, 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a March 17-18, 2008, public meeting “to discuss opportunities for industry-government partnerships to foster greater public awareness of the environmental attributes of household and institutional consumer products and help make consumers aware of efforts on the part of consumer product manufacturers to improve the environmental performance of their products and production facilities.” According to EPA, the...
The European Commission’s (EC) Scientific Committee on Consumer Products (SCCP) released on March 3, 2008, a document entitled Opinion on Safety of Nanomaterials in Cosmetic Products (Opinion). In its Opinion, the SCCP divides nanoparticles into two groups: 1) soluble and/or biodegradable nanoparticles; and 2) insoluble particles. The SCCP states that, for the soluble and/or biodegradable group, “conventional risk assessment methodologies based on mass metrics may be adequate, whereas...