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On July 6, 2010, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) published a Request for Information (RFI) on the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). According to OSTP, the purpose of the RFI is to enhance the value of the NNI “by reaching out to the nanotechnology stakeholder community for specific input for the next NNI Strategic Plan to be published in December 2010.  The RFI refers to the NNI goals identified from the 2007 Strategic Plan as...

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 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...

During the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s (NNI) March 30-31, 2010, conference regarding “Risk Management Methods & Ethical, Legal, and Societal Implications of Nanotechnology,” Tom Kalil, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), announced that the OSTP would create a new interagency group on emerging technologies, including nanotechnology. Kalil’s announcement is reported in an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) policy alert, which...

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 November 9, 2009, Australia announced the availability of a public discussion paper proposing to strengthen regulation of industrial nanomaterials used in Australia. The National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) developed the proposal in conjunction with its Nanotechnology Advisory Group, which includes representatives from industry, the community, and research sectors. Major regulatory reforms would include:  refinement of pre-market assessment categories...

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...