Archives

May 31, 2023

ANSES Calls for the EC to Adopt a “More Protective” Definition of Nanomaterials

The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) issued a May 17, 2023, news item stating that it believes that the European Commission’s (EC) revised Recommendation on the definition of nanomaterial, published in June 2022, “is too restrictive and could lead to a regression in the protection of public health and the environment.” ANSES “is therefore urging the French authorities to take a more inclusive definition into account and work...
May 18, 2022

France Asks Providers to Give Updated R-Nano Declaration Numbers to Customers upon Request

The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) has posted “important information” for the 2022 reporting period under R-Nano, France’s national reporting scheme for substances in nanoparticle form. ANSES states that it is asking providers to give an updated declaration number to their customers upon request, “even if they have no declaration to perform.” To do so, providers “must ‘duplicate’ the substance identity information...
October 19, 2021

ANSES Publishes Health Risk Assessment Guide for Nanomaterials in Food

On October 11, 2021, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) announced the release of a scientific guide to assess the risks posed by nanomaterials in food. According to ANSES, engineered nanomaterials are used in the food sector as: The guide provides a risk assessment methodology for engineered nanomaterials used as food additives and ingredients with a nutritional function. ANSES notes that the European Food Safety Authority...
July 29, 2021

France Seeks More Protective European Definition of Nanomaterials

As reported in our May 7, 2021, blog item, the European Commission (EC) recently held a targeted stakeholder consultation to update, test, and verify the preliminary findings of its review of the 2011 Recommendation on the definition of a nanomaterial. According to a July 23, 2021, news item posted by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES), in its response to the consultation, ANSES maintained that the changes proposed by the EC...
June 7, 2021

ANSES Reiterates Recommendation to Restrict Use of Products Containing Nanomaterials “That Are of Little Benefit to the Population”

On June 3, 2021, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) published an interview with Aurélie Niaudet, who is in charge of assessing the risks associated with physical agents. Niaudet states that nanomaterials have novel properties that “are highly sought after and increasingly exploited, but can also induce specific types of behaviour when interacting with humans or the environment.” After the human body is exposed, “there is then the question...
March 11, 2021

France Recommends OELs for Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles

On March 4, 2021, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) announced that it is recommending an eight-hour occupational exposure limit (OEL) of 0.80 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3) for titanium dioxide nanoparticles.  According to ANSES, compliance with this value “should help prevent lung inflammation, an effect that occurs at the lowest exposure concentrations.”  Due to the lack of available data on the immediate or...
December 9, 2020

ANSES Evaluates R-Nano Register, Offers Recommendations to Improve Reliability and Optimize Its Use

On December 1, 2020, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) announced the results of an assessment of R-Nano, France’s national reporting scheme for substances in nanoparticle form.  In 2013, France began requiring companies that manufacture, import, and/or distribute a “substance with nanoparticle status” in an amount of at least 100 grams per year to submit an annual report with substance identity, quantity, and use...
June 10, 2020

France Intends to Improve the Identification and Assessment of Manufactured Nanomaterials in Food

On June 9, 2020, the French National Agency for Food, Environmental, and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES) issued a press release, in French, proposing an inventory of manufactured nanomaterials in food.  According to ANSES, manufactured nanomaterials are used in food: ANSES used data published in the scientific literature to identify 37 substances used as food additives or ingredients for which it considers that the presence of nanoparticles is proven (seven substances:  calcium...
April 18, 2019

France Bans Titanium Dioxide Food Additive Beginning in 2020

On April 17, 2019, the Ministry of Ecological and Solidarity Transition issued a press release announcing that France will prohibit foods containing food additive E171 (titanium dioxide) from being placed on the market beginning January 1, 2020.  The press release cites the April 15, 2019, opinion from the Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail (ANSES).  The expert group established by ANSES conducted a literature review on the...
May 30, 2018

OECD Tour de Table Reports on Developments on Safety of Manufactured Nanomaterials

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published a May 17, 2018, document entitled Developments in Delegations on the Safety of Manufactured Nanomaterials — Tour de Table.  The document compiles information provided by delegations for the February 2018 OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN) meeting on current developments on the safety of manufactured nanomaterials.  It aims to summarize relevant information on activities related to...