On February 19, 2021, the European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) published a Nanopinion entitled “eREACHNano helps you to register nanoforms under REACH” by Dorte Rasmussen, Ph.D., who has been working on the exposure and risk assessment of chemicals at DHI A/S for almost 25 years. Rasmussen describes eREACHNano, a tool developed to explain Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation requirements for nanoforms. ...
February 19, 2021
OECD Publishes Developments on the Safety of Manufactured Nanomaterials in Tour de Table
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has published the latest edition of the Developments in Delegations on the Safety of Manufactured Nanomaterials — Tour de Table. The Tour de Table compiles information provided by delegations on the occasion of the 20th meeting of the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN) in September 2020. Below are highlights from the Tour de Table: Between November 2018 and August 2020, EPA...
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...
February 10, 2021
EC DG Invites Offers for Study on Providing Market Data about Nanotechnology to Enhance Transparency
In December 2020, the European Commission (EC) Directorate-General (DG) for Research and Innovation opened a call for tenders for “Providing market data about nanotechnology to enhance transparency.” The description states that the study on nanotechnology/nanomaterials is aimed to provide a new set of data from the period of 2017 to 2020 into the NanoData database, available on the European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) website. This study will follow up on...
February 2, 2021
OECD Will Hold Webinar on Assessing the Dispersion Stability and Dissolution of Nanomaterials in the Environment
On February 25, 2021, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will hold a webinar on “Assessing the dispersion stability and dissolution (rate) of nanomaterials in the environment” to discuss the scope, content, and use of Test Guideline No. 318: Dispersion Stability of Nanomaterials in Simulated Environmental Media and its accompanying guidance document. According to OECD, “[t]he increased production and wide usage of manufactured...
January 26, 2021
Health, Environment, and Justice Organizations Seek Clarification from ECHA on Nano and Biocidal-Treated Products
On January 20, 2021, Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) Europe and 12 other health, environment, and justice organizations sent a letter to Bjorn Hansen, Executive Director of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) “seeking clarifications on both the applicable legal framework and risk management measures in place, for nano/biocidal-treated articles in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic.” The letter states that “[a]s a result of laboratory tests supposedly showing...
January 21, 2021
Registration Opens for NNI Webinar on “What We Know about NanoEHS: How It All Began”
Registration is now open for the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative’s (NNI) February 9, 2021, webinar, “What We Know about NanoEHS: How It All Began.” NNI states that its 2021 NanoEHS webinar series will focus on sharing what it now knows about the environmental, health, and safety aspects of engineered nanomaterials (nanoEHS). According to NNI, throughout the series, “experts will share the big take-home EHS messages with the broader nanotechnology...
January 12, 2021
SCCS Opinion on the Safety of Nanomaterials in Cosmetics Includes Prioritized List of Nanomaterials for Risk Assessment
On January 11, 2021, the European Commission’s (EC) Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) posted a final opinion entitled Scientific Advice on the Safety of Nanomaterials in Cosmetics. The EC requested that SCCS determine the nanomaterials, as published in the 2019 catalogue of nanomaterials, for which specific concerns can be identified and justified to establish a priority list of nanomaterials for risk assessment (Article 16(4) Reg. 1223/2009). The final opinion...
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...
January 4, 2021
ACGIH® TLV®-CS Committee Seeks Information on Carbon Nanotubes
The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH®) Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances (TLV®-CS) Committee has included carbon nanotubes on its 2021 list of chemical substances and other issues under study. Being placed on the under study list indicates that the TLV®-CS Committee has selected carbon nanotubes for development of a threshold limit value (TLV®). ACGIH® describes TLVs® as health-based values representing the...