All Knowledge & Insights By Date

On April 15, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced final product performance data requirements for products claiming efficacy against certain pests. 87 Fed. Reg. 22464. This action officially incorporates EPA’s already existing product performance standards requirements for certain invertebrate pests into the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR).  EPA states this action also increases the efficiency of its approval process and will save...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on April 18, 2022, that it will hold a webinar on May 11, 2022, entitled “Data-Driven Solutions to Reducing Animal Use in Ecotoxicity.” Speakers will include: Carlie LaLone, Ph.D., EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD), on “The Sequence Alignment to Predict Across Species Susceptibility (SeqAPASS) Tool: Extrapolating Knowledge Computationally.” EPA states that regulatory decision-making for chemical safety relies upon...

On March 31, 2022, the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) published a supplement to President Biden’s 2022 budget request. The supplement serves as NNI’s annual report. According to the supplement, NNI has made significant progress toward the five goals of NNI identified in the 2021 NNI Strategic Plan. Furthermore, the nanotechnology research community continues to leverage former NNI investments that established a strong foundation of understanding at the nanoscale to combat...

The European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) has launched two calls for tenders to conduct studies on nanomaterials. The first call for tender is on valid in silico modeling tools and read-across approaches, including creating case studies on read-across for specific types of nanomaterials. According to the call for tender, the study proposes to examine the use of these tools for nanomaterials and to draw potential conclusions (for both regulators and industry/small-...

On March 1, 2022, NanoHarmony held the first in a series of webinars covering the different phases that an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) test guideline (TG) progresses through during its journey from a science-based initial idea through to use by industry to fulfill regulatory obligations. A recording of the March 1, 2022, webinar on the use of TGs in industry is now available. A short survey is available to collect stakeholder viewpoints on the...

On February 24, 2022, the European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) published a Nanopinion entitled “Are nanoplastics hazardous? The way forward to overcome the uncertainties of risk assessment” by Dr. Anita Jemec Kokalj and Dr. Dana Kühnel about defining the criteria to evaluate which properties of nanoplastics should be reported in future studies to decrease uncertainties in their risk assessment. The authors state that nanoplastics “are complex environmental pollutants...

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold a virtual public meeting April 20-21, 2022, to seek individual input on the proposed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) New Chemicals Collaborative Research Program. 87 Fed. Reg. 10784. In addition, EPA announced the availability of and is soliciting public comment on the draft document entitled “Modernizing the Process and Bringing Innovative Science to Evaluate New Chemicals Under TSCA.” EPA...

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) will hold a webinar on “What We Know about NanoEHS: Building International Bridges” on March 1, 2022. NNI states that it has supported the emergence of an international community of collaborative researchers on the environmental, health, and safety aspects of nanomaterials (nanoEHS). According to NNI, “[b]y advancing tools, methods, and standards for robust health and safety evaluation, these cooperative efforts have furthered the safe and...

By Lynn L. Bergeson  On January 10, 2022, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced that a team of its researchers has developed a promising approach to control methane emissions and remove methane from the air using zeolite clay. Zeolite clay is inexpensive and abundant. The MIT team found that, when treated with copper, the material is very effective at absorbing methane from the air even at low concentrations. According to researcher and Associate Professor of Civil...

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) will hold a webinar on “What We Know about NanoEHS: Nanoinformatics and Modeling” on January 31, 2022. NNI states that nanoinformatics and modeling support and crosscut all areas of assessments of the environmental, health, and safety aspects of nanomaterials (nanoEHS). The expert panel will explore how progress in nanoinformatics and modeling has impacted the safe and responsible development of nanotechnology. The panel will be moderated by...