On July 13, 2021, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) announced the availability of a draft technical report entitled Approaches to Developing Occupational Exposure Limits or Bands for Engineered Nanomaterials: User Guide and Technical Report. 86 Fed. Reg. 36748. NIOSH states that the draft report describes an evidence-based approach to evaluate the scientific information available to derive occupational exposure limits, or bands, for engineered...
Archives
May 20, 2021
NIOSH CIB on Health Effect of Occupational Exposure to Silver Nanomaterials Includes REL for Silver Nanomaterials
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has published Current Intelligence Bulletin 70: Health Effects of Occupational Exposure to Silver Nanomaterials. According to the Current Intelligence Bulletin (CIB), NIOSH assessed potential health risk from exposure to silver nanomaterials by evaluating more than 100 studies of silver nanomaterials in animals or cells. The CIB states that recent studies in animals have demonstrated that biologic activity and potential...
Registration is open for the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative’s (NNI) March 23, 2021, webinar on “What We Know About NanoEHS: Human Exposure.” The webinar will feature experts from diverse disciplines to share their perspectives on key findings in quantifying and assessing the effects of human exposure to nanomaterials. Keana Scott, Ph.D., Physical Scientist, Materials Measurement Science Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology...
February 11, 2021
OSHA’s Proposed Updates to Hazard Communication Standard Will Include Particle Characteristics
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is scheduled to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on February 16, 2021, that would modify the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) to conform to the United Nations’ Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) Revision 7 “to address issues that arose during the implementation of the 2012 update to the HCS, and provide better alignment with other U.S. agencies and international...
January 5, 2021
NIOSH Science Blog Reports on Recent Article Concerning Carbon Nanotubes and Nanofibers Used or Produced in U.S. Facilities
On January 5, 2021, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) posted a Science Blog item entitled “Understanding the Broad Class of Carbon Nanotubes and Nanofibers (CNT/F) Used or Produced in U.S. Facilities.” The item summarizes a recently published article in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology, “Physicochemical characterization and genotoxicity of the broad class of carbon nanotubes and nanofibers used or produced in U.S. facilities” that...
On June 25, 2020, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published a Nanotechnology Research Center (NTRC) Program Performance One-Pager (PPOP). NTRC conducts research to understand the potential effects on human health of exposure to engineered nanomaterials (ENM) and develops methods to control or eliminate exposures. According to the PPOP, NTRC’s accomplishments include conducting a survey to gather information about companies’ safety and...
On June 30, 2020, from 9:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m. (EDT), the European Union (EU) NanoSafety Cluster will hold a webinar on “Immune response from occupational exposure to CNTs and nanofibres.” The following speakers will discuss work at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) on the association of occupational exposure with ex vivo functional immune response in workers handling carbon nanotubes and...
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has posted two posters from the NIOSH Nanotechnology Research Center (NTRC) on 3D printing: 3D Printing with Filaments: Health and Safety Questions to Ask and 3D Printing with Metal Powders: Health and Safety Questions to Ask. The posters provide health and safety questions with different control options and information intended to reduce exposure to potential hazards. The questions...
On March 4, 2020, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) published a Federal Register notice announcing the availability of its Current Intelligence Bulletin 69: NIOSH Practices in Occupational Risk Assessment. 85 Fed. Reg. 12786. The Current Intelligence Bulletin (CIB) describes the process and logic NIOSH uses to conduct risk assessments, including the following steps: Appendix C of the CIB includes sections addressing nanomaterials...
On February 19, 2020, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) posted a Science Blog item entitled “Are There Nano- and Microplastics in the Workplace?” that reviews workplace exposure to microplastics (defined by NIOSH as “plastic particles smaller than 5 mm”) and nanoplastics (the nanoscale fraction of plastic particles). NIOSH states that nano- and microplastic particles (NMPP) “can be formed through environmental and mechanical degradation (the...