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The Swiss National Science Foundation issued a May 12, 2016, press release announcing that researchers from the National Research Program “Opportunities and Risks of Nanomaterials” have developed a new model to track the flow of the “most important nanomaterials in the environment.”  To assess how man-made nanoparticles make their way into the air, earth, or water, researchers developed a computer model to determine the environmental accumulation of nanosilver, nanozinc, nano-titanium...

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on May 24, 2016, that Viatek Consumer Products Group, Inc. and Company owner and President Lou Lentine have agreed to settle FTC charges that they made deceptive claims for Viatek-brand Mosquito Shield Bands. FTC also charged Lentine and Viatek with violating a 2003 administrative order prohibiting Lentine from making product claims without "competent and reliable" evidence to support them. According to the FTC's February 2015 complaint in the...

? Energy.gov, "Energy And Commerce Departments Announce Lab Partnership Opportunities for U.S. Small Businesses and Manufacturers" ? EPA, "EPA Awards 18 Grants For Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training" ? The New York Times, "Biofuels Plant in Hawaii Is First to Be Certified as Sustainable" ? The Motley Fool, "Can The U.S. Military Afford to Run on Biofuels?" ? Quad-City Times, "Guest View: for the Farmers, the Biofuel Bubble Has...

In May of 2016, the DOE's Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) awarded the University of Illinois and the University of Florida $300,000 to continue researching ultra-productive biofuel crops. The research project is called Plants Engineered To Replace Oil in Sugarcane and Sweet Sorghum (PETROSS), and this is the third round of funding that it will receive from ARPA-E. PETROSS is engineering sugarcane and sorghum to produce 20 percent oil, compared to the 0.05 percent oil that...

On May 16, 2016, the DOE's BETO invited applications for abstracts for the poster session of the ninth annual conference Bioenergy 2016: Mobilizing the Bioeconomy through Innovation. Poster abstracts are due by June 3, 2016, and must fit the following guidelines: Not exceed the maximum of 300 words;   Explain validity and technical merit of the approach;   Discuss how the poster will be used to engage Bioenergy 2016 attendees;   Highlight applicability to BETO...

According to an item in the Spring 2016 Regulatory Agenda, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is “developing a final rule related to” its April 6, 2015, proposal to require reporting and recordkeeping requirements under Section 8(a) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for certain chemical substances when they are manufactured or processed at the nanoscale.  EPA proposed to require persons that manufacture, import, or process, or intend to manufacture, import, or process...

On May 16, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated, through a direct final rule, significant new use rules (SNUR) for 55 chemical substances that were the subject of premanufacture notices (PMN), including functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNT) (generic).  EPA states that it determined that any use of the functionalized CNTs without the use of impervious gloves, where there is potential for dermal exposure; manufacturing the PMN substance for use other than as a thin...

On May 11, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Compliance (OC) and Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) issued a memorandum to its regional Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Division Directors and Branch Chiefs to establish a joint position of OC and OPP “for how regions should respond to requests for EPA-issued Certificates of Establishment (COEs) and Certificates of Origin (COOs).” OC and OPP state that the need for a joint position is...