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The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) released a draft Current Intelligence Bulletin (CIB) entitled Occupational Exposure to Carbon Nanotubes and Nanofibers, which recommends that, until results from research studies can fully elucidate the physicochemical properties of carbon nanotubes (CNT) and carbon nanofibers (CNF) that define their inhalation toxicity, employers should take steps to minimize CNT and CNF exposures of all workers and implement an occupational...

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has posted an October 2010 Impact Sheet entitled “NIOSH Research Methods Demonstrate that Breathing Nanoparticles May Result in Damaging Health Effects,” which reports the results of recently published research concerning the health effects of inhaling single-walled carbon nanotubes. According to the Impact Sheet, NIOSH scientists invented a way to suspend nanotubes in air, thus allowing for control of the concentration of...

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) announced on September 22, 2010, that it entered into a formal partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for High-Rate Nanomanufacturing (CHN) that is intended to provide companies with practical research and guidance to promote occupational health and safety in nanotechnology. Through the new partnership, University of Massachusetts (UMass) Lowell, CHN, and NIOSH will “address safety issues so that...

The August 2010 issue of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Environmental Factor includes an article regarding the Intramural NanoHealth Signature Program, which is intended to investigate the health effects of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) in susceptible populations. According to the article, ENMs are increasingly found in medications, cosmetics, electronics, and other consumer products, creating environmental as well as occupational...

On July 9, 2010, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) will host a webinar to discuss draft international guidance on the labeling of manufactured nano-objects and products containing manufactured nano-objects. The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) Technical Committee (TC) 352 Nanotechnologies and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) TC 229 Nanotechnologies are jointly developing a Technical Specification entitled “Guidance on the labeling of...

On June 6, 2010, the European Commission (EC) Joint Research Center Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (JRC-IHCP) and the Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) at the European Union (EU)-China Food Safety Scientific Seminar held at the Shanghai World Expo.  According to JRC-IHCP, “[b]oth institutions provide technical support for policy makers and aim to reinforce their co-operation in scientific research for consumer...

On June 10, 2010, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) issued a press release entitled “Nanosilver has no place in food, textiles or cosmetics,” which states “BfR currently advises against using nanoscale silver ions in consumer products.” According to BfR, manufacturers of consumer products “have made use of the antimicrobial properties of silver ions for some time now,” and “silver particles in the nanorange have likewise been used.” BfR states: “It...

On May 28, 2010, the House passed, by a vote of 262-150, the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (H.R. 5116), which would authorize funding for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), as well as the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science activities. The bill includes language from H.R. 554, the NNI Amendments Act of 2009, which the House passed in February 2009. H.R. 5116 would...

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) announced that laboratory studies, reported in a paper posted online by the journal Nature Nanotechnology on April 4, 2010, discovered that carbon nanotubes were biodegraded by an enzyme found in white blood cells, neutrophils.  According to NIOSH, the researchers demonstrated that, unlike carbon nanotubes that were not biodegraded in this way, the biodegraded nanotubes did not cause inflammation in the lungs of mice.  NIOSH...

On January 19, 2010, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) announced three new peer-reviewed articles co-authored by NIOSH researchers. According to NIOSH, the articles report findings and conclusions from studies that examined issues related to potential occupational exposure to engineered nanomaterials. Two articles in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene report on the design and application of the nanomaterial emission assessment technique,...

On January 8, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extended until February 8, 2010, the comment period for its November 6, 2009, proposed significant new use rules (SNUR) for multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT) and single-walled CNTs.  According to the January 8, 2010, notice, EPA received a request to extend the comment period.  On December 1, 2009, the U.S. World Trade Organization (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Inquiry Point at the National Institute of Standards...

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) announced that it will hold a conference entitled “Nanomaterials and Worker Health:  Medical Surveillance, Exposure Registries, and Epidemiologic Research,” on July 21-23, 2010, at the Keystone Resort and Conference Center in Keystone, Colorado. According to NIOSH, the goal of the conference is to identify gaps in information and address questions focusing on occupational health surveillance, exposure registries, and...

On September 23, 2009, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Project on Emerging Technologies (PEN) hosted a meeting on “Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation: Securing the Promise of Nanotechnologies.” The program is part of a collaborative research project involving experts from the London School of Economics (LSE), Chatham House, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), and PEN. The project is funded by a grant from the European Commission to support pilot...

The London School of Economics (LSE), Chatham House, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), and the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars held a conference on September 10-11, 2009, on “Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation: Securing the Promise of Nanotechnologies,” in London. LSE, Chatham House, ELI, and PEN are participating in an international collaborative project, Regulating Nanotechnologies in the EU and U.S.,...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced the Interagency Nanotechnology Implications Grantees Workshop, which will feature presentations on recent research by EPA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH/NIEHS), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and Department of Energy (DOE) grant researchers.  According to EPA, the November 9-10, 2009, meeting “will...

The August 2009 issue of Nature Nanotechnology includes an article entitled “Essential Features for Proactive Risk Management,” written by Vladimir Murashov, Ph.D., Special Assistant to the Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), and John Howard, M.D., former NIOSH Director. The authors “propose a proactive approach to the management of occupational health risks in emerging technologies based on six features:  qualitative risk assessment; the...

According to its website, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has joined the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health in inviting submission of scientific papers for a special issue of the Journal. The special edition is provisionally entitled “Human and Environmental Exposure Assessment for Nanomaterials,” and will be edited by Vladimir Murashov, Ph.D., a special assistant to the NIOSH Director. Submissions are due January 15,...

In a notice in the August 4, 2009, Federal Register, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Interagency Testing Committee (ITC) released its latest report to the Administrator. Under TSCA Section 4(e), the ITC is required ‘‘to make recommendations to the Administrator respecting the chemical substances and mixtures to which the Administrator should give priority consideration for the promulgation of rules for testing.” According to the report, “the ITC has no...

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has posted a link to an article entitled “National Nanotechnology Partnership to Protect Workers,” which proposes the creation of a National Nanotechnology Partnership led by NIOSH. The article, posted online on July 7, 2009, by the Journal of Nanoparticle Research, suggests the partnership be a collaboration of government agencies, manufacturers, users, and others. The authors are John Howard, M.D. former NIOSH Director,...

On July 15, 2009, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) announced plans to hold a conference entitled “Nanomaterials and Worker Health:  Occupational Health Surveillance, Exposure Registries, and Epidemiological Research.” The conference is intended to identify gaps in information about potential occupational health effects of nanomaterials, as well as address questions related to occupational health and safety. According to NIOSH’s website, the...