In a recent speech at the 9th Annual Food Regulation and Labeling Standards Conference, Steve McCutcheon, CEO of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), said that FSANZ has begun analyzing the potential implications of nanotechnology on the food supply chain. FSANZ hopes that, by the time it receives its first application to approve the use of the technology in food, it will already have sufficient scientific and medical information to make an informed decision....
Archives
November 26, 2007
EFSA Begins Review of Nanotechnology
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) met the week of November 19, 2007, to begin reviewing the regulation and risk assessment of nanotechnology. The European Commission (EC) issued a mandate for a complete evaluation by March 31, 2008, but EFSA responded that, because of the range of differing properties and safety profiles, it will not be able to complete its review by this deadline. EFSA instead proposed to issue an initial scientific opinion by Summer 2008. EFSA...
November 13, 2007
First Annual Nanotechnology Safety for Success Dialogue Held in October
On October 25-26, 2007, the European Commission (EC) held the First Annual Nanotechnology Safety for Success Dialogue. Presentations included:...
The Swedish Chemicals Agency (KemI) recently released a report entitled Nanotechnology — Large Risks with Tiny Particles? Although the report is in Swedish, it includes a summary in English. According to the report, the rapid development of new fields of application and a lack of knowledge call for caution. The report states that companies are responsible for ensuring that human health and the environment are not damaged and that legislation needs to be extended to cover...
November 6, 2007
House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Relationship Between Environmental and Health Policy and Nanotechnology
On October 31, 2007, the House Committee on Science and Technology’s Research and Science Education Subcommittee held a hearing on the relationship between environmental and health policy and nanotechnology. The Subcommittee examined how the U.S. can stay at the forefront of scientific research and development, while at the same time establishing priorities and a detailed plan for research on the potential environmental and health risks of engineered nanomaterials. The...
October 18, 2007
Draft Guidance Addresses Nanomaterials in the Workplace
The Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin/BAuA) (FIOSH) and the German Chemical Industry Association (Verband der Chemischen Industrie/VCI) (GCIA) have issued draft document entitled Guidance for Handling and Use of Nanomaterials at the Workplace. The Guidance is intended to provide an overview of occupational health and safety measures in the production and use of nanomaterials. The basis for the Guidance is a...
October 15, 2007
DEFRA Will Publish Revised VRS Guidance
According to the fourth quarterly report for the UK’s Voluntary Reporting Scheme (VRS) for Manufactured Nanomaterials, the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) received no new submissions during the most recent quarter. Since the VRS began in September 2006, DEFRA has received a total of nine submissions, seven from industry and two from academia. In late July 2007, the Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances (ACHS) reported the findings...
September 17, 2007
Canada Publishes Proposed Regulatory Framework for Nanomaterials Under CEPA
Environment Canada (EC) and Health Canada (HC) have released a document entitled Proposed Regulatory Framework for Nanomaterials Under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (Proposed Framework). EC/HC will hold a public workshop for stakeholders regarding the Proposed Framework on September 27, 2007, in Toronto. At the workshop, EC/HC will gather comments from participating stakeholders through discussion groups and plenary sessions. EC/HC will invite all...
September 12, 2007
Greenpeace Releases Activists’ Guide to REACH, Which Addresses Nanomaterials
On August 30, 2007, Greenpeace International (Greenpeace) issued a report entitled Navigating REACH: An Activists’ Guide To Using and Improving the New EU Chemicals Legislation (Guide), which is intended to explain how the European Union’s (EU) Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation will work, what main issues are at stake, and how the law will be implemented. The Guide highlights provisions that non-governmental...
August 30, 2007
Reader-Friendly Version of 2006 EC Report Available
The European Commission (EC) Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection retained GreenFacts to summarize the EC’s 2006 report entitled Modified Opinion (After Public Consultation) on the Appropriateness of Existing Methodologies to Assess the Potential Risks Associated with Engineered and Adventitious Products of Nanotechnologies. According to GreenFacts, the EC’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) wrote its Opinion for a...
August 16, 2007
EC Committee Recommends Revisions to Technical Guidance Documents to Address Risk Assessment of Nanomaterials
On August 8, 2007, the European Commission (EC) released the scientific opinion of the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) on the appropriateness of the risk assessment methodology in accordance with the European Union’s (EU) technical guidance documents for new and existing substances for assessing the risks of nanomaterials. SCENIHR concluded that modifications to the existing technical guidance documents are necessary because special...
August 7, 2007
International Coalition Urges Nano-Specific Regulations
On July 31, 2007, an international coalition of consumer, public health, environmental, and labor organizations issued the Principles for the Oversight of Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials and called for strong, comprehensive oversight of the new technology and its products. According to the coalition, the manufacture of products using technology has “exploded in recent years,” while “evidence indicates that current nanomaterials may pose significant health, safety,...
According to a recent survey presented at the Rural Futures conference in Canberra, Australia, nanotechnology in food and farming is inadequately regulated. Rural sociologist Dr. Kristin Lyons, Griffith University, stated: “Despite significant investment from the agrifood sector in nanotechnologies, the need for nano-specific regulation in this area hasn’t been recognised as a priority by the federal government.” Lyons said that the nano-agrifood industry will be...
July 31, 2007
EuroNanoForum 2007 Proceedings Available Online
The proceedings of the June 19-21, 2007, EuroNanoForum 2007 are available. According to the European Commission (EC), they “provide an overview of the state-of-the-art in nanotechnology for industrial applications, presented by selected international top speakers to open up new perspectives in Europe for coming years.”...
July 30, 2007
UK Will Develop Responsible NanoCode for Business
On July 23, 2007, the United Kingdom (UK) Royal Society issued a press release entitled “’Responsible NanoCode’ for business to be developed.” The press release states: “An initiative to develop a ‘Responsible NanoCode‘ for businesses working with nanotechnologies has been launched by the Royal Society, Insight Investment, the Nanotechnology Industries Association and the Nanotechnology Knowledge Transfer Network today.” The Code is intended to establish a set of...
July 27, 2007
European Commission Initiates Consultation on Responsible Research in Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies
On July 19, 2007, the European Commission (EC) issued a press release entitled “Commission launches consultation on responsible research in Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies.” The press release states: “The European Commission has today announced a public consultation on responsible nanosciences and nanotechnologies research. The consultation will provide input for a Recommendation to the Member States on a possible Code of Conduct for this emerging area of science, which...
Environment Canada (EC) recently posted a New Substances Program Advisory Note entitled “Requirements for nanomaterials under the New Substances Notification Regulations (Chemicals and Polymers).” The Advisory Note was signed in June 2007 and states that the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA) and the New Substances Notification Regulations (Chemicals and Polymers) (Regulations) “apply to new nanomaterials just as any other substance, whether a chemical or a...
Until September 6, 2007, the European Commission (EC) Scientific Committee on Consumer Products (SCCP) is accepting comments on its Preliminary Opinion on the Safety of Nanomaterials in Cosmetic Products. According to the SCCP, traditional risk assessment methods — hazard identification, hazard characterization, and exposure assessment — may not be suitable for nanomaterials in cosmetics. The SCCP suggests that either a new method should be developed, or...
June 26, 2007
Nano-Bio Interaction Workshop Materials Available
The International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON) held a workshop entitled “Towards Predicting Nano-Bio Interactions” on June 5-7, 2007. The plenary presentations and meeting information are now online....
The July 2007 issue of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology includes an article entitled “Limits and Prospects of the ‘Incremental Approach’ and the European Legislation on the Management of Risks Related to Nanomaterials.” According to the authors, the European Commission (EC) has adopted an incremental approach, focusing on adopting existing laws to regulate nanotechnologies. The authors concluded that the current regulations fail to address the...
The European Commission (EC) will hold its annual Green Week in Brussels, Belgium, from June 12-15, 2007. On June 14, 2007, an afternoon session will examine the benefits of nanotechnology for the environment and on how nanotechnologies could help to solve major environmental problems, e.g., climate change, energy efficiency, resources use, remediation and pollution prevention, opportunities for developing countries, as well as the potential risks for environment...
May 29, 2007
Report Cites Lack of Data Regarding Effectiveness of Regulations to Manage Potential Nanotechnology Risks
According to a recent report entitled Nanomaterials in Consumer Products, the extent to which a variety of European regulations would manage potential risks of nanomaterials in consumer products cannot be assessed. The report was prepared for the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health, and Food Safety. According to the report, which is not publicly available, “[u]ntil there are data on which to determine the nature of any risks posed by...
It has been suggested by some that REACH’s application to nanoparticles and nanomaterials is unclear. While it is true that REACH does not specifically mention nanoparticles or nanoscale materials anywhere in its 800+ pages of text, we note that in December 2006, shortly after the regulation’s adoption by the European Parliament, the European Commission posted on its website a question-and-answer document that includes the following two exchanges: Will the use of hazardous...
May 22, 2007
U.S. – European Union Integration on Nanotechnology
At the 2007 U.S.-European Union (EU) Summit in Washington, D.C. late last month, President Bush and European Union (EU) leaders signed an economic integration agreement, the Framework for Advancing Transatlantic Economic Integration Between the United States of America and the European Union. With respect to nanotechnology, the accord commits the U.S. and EU to the following:...
On May 10, 2007, the European Commission (EC) announced the availability of the results of its April 16, 2007, workshop on intellectual property rights (IPR) in nanotechnology. The objective of the workshop was to identify specific IPR issues for nanotechnology and to discuss possible consequences for patent offices, policy makers, patent consultants, and the research community. Ongoing academic and political discussions have identified many aspects, such as the costs of...
April 25, 2007
Few Submissions Made Under UK’s Voluntary Reporting Scheme
On April 3, 2007, the United Kingdom’s (UK) Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) released its second quarterly update on the Voluntary Reporting Scheme (VRS) for engineered nanoscale materials. According to the update, DEFRA has received a total of six submissions since VRS’s launch in September 2006, four of which were from industry and two from academia. DEFRA has liaised with groups representing the UK nanotechnologies industry and has...
On April 11, 2007, the European Commission (EC) announced that the report prepared by the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) regarding the appropriateness of the risk assessment methodology for assessing the risks of nanomaterials is available for comment. Comments are due May 23, 2007. EC states that the report “provides the Commission with a sound scientific approach on how to modify the Technical Guidance Documents of the EU...
April 11, 2007
Lynn L. Bergeson Presents What’s New in Nanotechnology
At the 2007 GlobalChem Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, Lynn L. Bergeson presented slides on “Nanotechnology: What’s New.” Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. co-sponsored this important conference....
On March 20, 2007, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) released a report entitled Nanotechnology and Life Cycle Assessment: A Systems Approach to Nanotechnology and the Environment, which summarizes the results of the October 2-3, 2006, workshop organized by PEN and the European Commission on life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA is a cradle-to-grave analysis of how a material affects ecosystems and human...