All Knowledge & Insights By Date

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development recently posted a March 29, 2016, report entitled Developments in Delegations on the Safety of Manufactured Nanomaterials — Tour de Table.  The report compiles information, provided by Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN) participating delegations, before and after the November 2015 WPMN meeting, on current developments on the safety of manufactured nanomaterials.  OECD intends the report to provide delegations with...

On March 31, 2016, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) published its supplement to the President’s 2017 budget request.  The supplement also serves as the NNI annual report called for under the provisions of the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act of 2003.  NNI states that the President’s budget request provides $1.4 billion for NNI, with a cumulative total of nearly $24 billion since the inception of NNI in 2001 (including the 2017 request), “affirming...

On March 28, 2016, the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO) announced the release of a report entitled Quantifying Exposure to Engineered Nanomaterials (QEEN) from Manufactured Products:  Addressing Environmental, Health, and Safety Implications.  The report summarizes the July 7-8, 2015, QEEN workshop, which was sponsored by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and co-hosted by the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI).  The main goals for...

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) issued a March 23, 2016, press release concerning the launch of a Nanotechnology Signature Initiative (NSI), Water Sustainability through Nanotechnology:  Nanoscale Solutions for a Global-Scale Challenge.  The Office of Science and Technology posted a blog item on March 23, 2016, concerning the new NSI, stating that it is intended “to take advantage of the unique properties of engineered nanomaterials to generate...

On March 8, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a notice in the Federal Register stating that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) will hold a three-day meeting scheduled for April 19-21, 2016, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (EDT) to consider and review Chlorpyrifos:  Analysis of Biomonitoring Data.  The meeting will be held at EPA’s Conference Center, Lobby Level, One...

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently published the following reports: Physical-chemical properties of nanomaterials: Evaluation of methods applied in the OECD-WPMN testing programme: The Netherlands volunteered to lead an initial detailed evaluation of the applicability of the test methods applied to determine the physico-chemical properties of different types of nanomaterials in the Testing Program.  The evaluated dossiers include information on...

On February 16, 2016, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (Danish EPA) posted a report entitled Assessment of Nano-enabled Technologies in Cosmetics.  The report reviews the available literature on nano-enabled technologies for cosmetic products, specifically addressing soluble nano-transporters.  Accompanying the report is an appraised database summarizing the literature that formed the basis of the review.  The database addresses the following areas:  types and...

According to a February 22, 2016, press release from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an OECD report states that “[u]rgent research is needed to assess the possible risks to human health and ecosystems from the ever-increasing amounts of engineered nanomaterials going into household waste and ending up in the environment.”  The OECD report, Nanomaterials in Waste Streams:  Current Knowledge on Risks and Impacts, states that engineered...

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has posted the following reports concerning nanomaterials: Considerations for Using Dissolution as a Function of Surface Chemistry to Evaluate Environmental Behaviour Of Nanomaterials in Risk Assessments:  A Preliminary Case Study Using Silver Nanoparticles — The December 18, 2015, report discusses preliminary findings on dissolution by media type, provides recommendations, compares silver nanoparticles to other...

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published on January 11, 2016, the Scientific Network for Risk Assessment of Nanotechnologies in Food and Feed (Nano Network) annual report for 2015.  The report states that, during 2015, the Nano Network followed-up on its four priority topics:  (1) the need for an inventory of nanomaterials in products on the market; (2) the analysis and monitoring of products under development and on the market; (3) the need for suitable measuring...

In December 2015, the proceedings from the March 12-13, 2015, U.S.-European Union (EU) joint workshop on “Bridging NanoEHS Research Efforts” were posted online.  The workshop was sponsored by the European Commission (EC) and the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI).  It brought together European and American scientists engaged in nanotechnology environmental, health, and safety (nanoEHS) research to identify areas of shared nanoEHS interest and mechanisms for...

Registration is open for the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s (NNI) December 11, 2015, webinar entitled “All Hands on Deck for Improving Data Quality.”  The one-hour webinar will include a presentation from Dr. Paul Weiss, Distinguished Professor at UCLA and Editor-in-Chief of ACS Nano, on nanotechnology data reproducibility challenges and needs.  Dr. Ewan Birney, Director of European Bioiformatics Institute, will present a case study on the formation of the...

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently posted four reflection papers that discuss the possible release of nanomaterials from waste treatment operations and a literature review on four specific waste treatment processes of recycling, incineration, landfilling, and wastewater treatment.  The papers aim to point out the knowledge gaps and areas where further research is needed. Incineration of Waste Containing Nanomaterials: The paper was developed to attempt...

On November 10, 2015, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency posted the following publications concerning nanomaterials: Environmental assessment of nanomaterial use in Denmark: This is the concluding report of the project “Nanomaterials — occurrence and effects in the Danish environment” (NanoDEN). The projects in NanoDEN aimed to investigate and generate new environmentally relevant knowledge concerning nanomaterials on the Danish market and to assess the possible associated risks to...

On October 20, 2015, the White House announced a grand challenge to develop transformational computing capabilities by combining innovations in multiple scientific disciplines.  The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) states that, after considering over 100 responses to its June 17, 2015, request for information, it “is excited to announce the following grand challenge that addresses three Administration priorities — the National Nanotechnology Initiative,...

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) posted a new publication in its Series on the Safety of Manufactured Nanomaterials, Preliminary Guidance Notes on Nanomaterials: Interspecies Variability Factors in Human Health Risk Assessment. The report includes the following recommendations for further work: The Expert Opinion prepared in support of the project noted a general lack of availability of data from repeated-dose toxicity studies in different species. In...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted on September 30, 2013, a final report entitled Comprehensive Environmental Assessment Applied to Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Flame-Retardant Coatings in Upholstery Textiles: A Case Study Presenting Priority Research Gaps for Future Risk Assessments. The final report presents a case study of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) used in flame-retardant coatings applied to upholstery textiles. EPA states that the case study is organized...

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) announced on September 17, 2015, that the National Science Foundation (NSF) will provide a total of $81 million over five years to support 16 sites and a coordinating office as part of a new National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI).  The awards are for up to five years and range from $500,000 to $1.6 million each per year.  Nine of the sites have at least one regional partner institution.  The 16 sites are...

On September 16, 2015, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (Wilson Center) released a funding report on U.S. Trends in Synthetic Biology Research Funding. The Wilson Center found that the U.S. invested approximately $820 million in synthetic biology research between 2008 and 2014, with nearly 60 percent of the funding coming from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The National Science Foundation (NSF) has also been funding synthetic biology research,...

In an opinion issued on September 10, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) unconditional registration for the pesticide sulfoxaflor and remanded the matter to EPA to obtain further studies and data regarding the effects of sulfoxaflor on bees and bee colonies.  Sulfoxaflor is a new insecticide in the class of insecticides referred to as neonicotinoids, but its mechanism of action is distinct from other...