The European Commission’s (EC) Joint Research Center has published a Technical Report entitled Mapping Nanomedicine Terminology in the Regulatory Landscape. According to the abstract, to support a better understanding of terms used in the regulatory domain, the Nanomedicines Working Group of the International Pharmaceutical Regulators Forum (IPRF) prioritized the need to map, compile, and discuss the currently used terminology of regulatory scientists coming from different geographic...
Category: Research and Testing
August 13, 2018
Registration Opens for NNI Webinar on NanoEHS and Nanomedicine
Registration has opened for an August 20, 2018, webinar on “NanoEHS and Nanomedicine: Similarities and Synergisms.” The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) notes that there are many synergies between nanomedicine research, which addresses (among other topics) issues of efficacy and safety, and studies on the environmental, health, and safety effects of nanomaterials (nanoEHS), which include the exploration of potential toxicity and exposures. Research in these...
In July 2018, the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), Human Health Assessment (HHA) Branch, issued its final toxic air contaminant (TAC) evaluation of chlorpyrifos. This final TAC evaluation updates the December 2017 draft evaluation of chlorpyrifos as a TAC for the Scientific Review Panel (SRP) which updated the August 2017 draft and was reviewed by the SRP on TACs, and incorporates certain changes based on SRP...
The July 2018 issue of the EFSA Journal includes an article entitled “Evaluation of four new studies on the potential toxicity of titanium dioxide used as a food additive (E 171).” The European Commission (EC) asked the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to carry out a scientific evaluation on four studies on the potential toxicity of titanium dioxide used as a food additive (E 171) and to indicate whether they would merit re-opening EFSA’s 2016 opinion on the safety of titanium...
By Lynn L. Bergeson On July 16, 2018, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced a $12 million investment in the Semiconductor Synthetic Biology for Information Processing and Storage Technologies (SemiSynBio) program, a partnership between NSF and Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC). Researches expect that integrating biological structures with semiconductor technology could increase current data storage capabilities by 1,000 times, while using less energy than current...
On June 19, 2018, 16 federal agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), issued a final rule delaying until January 21, 2019, the general compliance date for 2017 revisions to the policy governing studies with human subjects that are sponsored or utilized for regulatory purposes by the federal government (83 Fed. Reg. 28497). These revisions to the human testing policy were adopted on January 19, 2017, in a final rule (82 Fed. Reg. 7149) that amended and...
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has published a May 22, 2018, report entitled Assessment of Biodurability of Nanomaterials and their Surface ligands. The purpose of the report was to compile the relevant information on the biodurability of the pristine and functionalized nanomaterials in biological and environmental media in vitro and in vivo, as well as describing methods for measuring the stability and halftimes of nanomaterials. ...
The 32nd Triennial Congress of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) was held April 29 through May 4, 2018, in Dublin, Ireland. Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM) has published the abstracts for the Congress online, including the following ones concerning nanomaterials: “Update of potential hazards of nanomaterials,” by PA Schulte, I Iavicoli; “Overview — update of potential hazards of engineered nanomaterials,” by PA Schulte;...
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published a Federal Register notice on April 24, 2018, announcing the availability of a draft research plan entitled Continuing to Protect the Nanotechnology Workforce: NIOSH Nanotechnology Research Plan for 2018-2025 for public comment. The draft Nanotechnology Research Plan presents the Nanotechnology Research Center (NTRC) strategic plan for fiscal years (FY) 2018-2025, highlighting how the...
April 13, 2018
EPA Seeks Comment on Draft Interim Science Policy to Reduce Animal Testing for Skin Sensitization
On April 10, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the availability of a draft Science Policy document intended to reduce the use of animals in testing chemicals to evaluate whether they cause an allergic reaction, inflammation, or sensitization of the skin. According to EPA, the document, Draft Interim Science Policy: Use of Alternative Approaches for Skin Sensitization as a Replacement for Laboratory Animal Testing, “describes the science...