EPA Issues Consent Order for Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) recently posted two blog items regarding a consent order negotiated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The October 9, 2008, item states that EPA intends to issue a sanitized version of a consent order negotiated with a producer of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT). According to EDF, the order was prompted by EPA’s review of a premanufacturing notification (PMN).

EDF obtained a redacted copy of the consent order, and provides the following summary of the requirements:

• Conduct a 90-day inhalation toxicity test in rats;
• Supply EPA with a one-gram sample of its MWCNTs and its Material Safety Data Sheet;
• Submit certain characterization data within six months after commencing full manufacture;
• Require its workers to wear protective gloves and clothing shown to be impermeable and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)-approved respirators;
• Use the substance only for a particular use, claimed confidential but generically identified as a “property modifier” in electronics and polymer composites; and
• Provide the nanomaterial only to entities that agree to the same use restrictions and worker protection conditions.