All Knowledge & Insights By Date

On December 11, 2019, the European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) published a Nanopinion entitled “The innovator, the regulator and the citizen — building public trust through transparent, empowered and safe innovation.”  Carlos Eduardo Lima da Cunha, the European Commission (EC), explains how the EU is supporting safe by design approaches to new technologies such as nanomaterials to deliver safer products to the market.  Lima da Cunha notes that the EU has...

The European Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC) recently published a white paper entitled Anticipation of regulatory needs for nanotechnology-enabled health products.  The white paper notes that at this time, “no specific regulatory framework exists for nanotechnology-enabled health products but the current regulatory practice requires additional guidance in order to fully cover the particularities of such products.”  The white paper identifies the following major...

On November 22, 2019, the European Commission (EC) Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship, and Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) requested two scientific opinions from the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS): The request for a scientific opinion on platinum (nano)-colloidal platinum (nano) and acetyl tetrapeptide-17 colloidal platinum (nano) states that the EC received 18 notifications for cosmetic products containing platinum (10 notifications)...

The European Commission (EC) announced on November 15, 2019, that it published an updated catalog of nanomaterials used in cosmetic products on the European Union (EU) market.  As reported in our June 19, 2017, blog item, the EC first published a catalog in June 2017.  The catalog compiles information that responsible persons shared with the EC through the cosmetic products notification portal (CPNP) as of December 31, 2018.  The catalog lists 27 nanomaterials used...

On November 4, 2019, the European Commission’s (EC) Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) published an updated Guidance on the Safety Assessment of Nanomaterials in Cosmetics.  The Guidance updates SCCS’s 2012 Guidance (SCCS/1484/12) on the safety assessment of nanomaterials in cosmetic products.  It covers the main elements of safety assessment — general considerations (Section 2), material characterization (Section 3), exposure assessment (Section 4), hazard...

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) issued a press release on October 8, 2019, reminding companies that by January 1, 2020, companies must provide more information on nanomaterials on the European Union (EU) market under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation.  The new information requirements concern companies that manufacture or import nanoforms of substances that are subject to registration under REACH.  As...

On November 12, 2019, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) will hold a webinar on the amended information requirements for nanoforms under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation.  As reported in our December 4, 2018, blog item, the European Commission (EC) announced on December 3, 2018, that it adopted amendments to several REACH Annexes to clarify the information requirements for nanomaterials.  The amended...

The European Union (EU) Observatory for Nanomaterials (EUON) has created a Nanopinion section, where it invites views from different contributors ranging from policy-makers and authorities to industry and civil society on their work and priorities related to nanomaterials on the EU market.  The first item, posted on September 16, 2019, is “EUON:  past, present and future,” written by Bjorn Hansen, Executive Director of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).  As reported in our...

On July 3, 2019, the European Commission (EC) Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) published its final opinion on the solubility of synthetic amorphous silica (SAS). The EC asked whether SCCS considers that SAS materials are soluble (100 milligram per liter (mg/L) or higher) or degradable/non-persistent in biological systems in light of the nanomaterial definition of the Cosmetics Regulation. Having considered the data provided in this dossier and that available in published...

On June 25, 2019, the European Commission’s (EC) Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) posted two requests for scientific opinions:  hydroxyapatite (nano) and copper (nano) and colloidal copper (nano).  According to the mandate for hydroxyapatite (nano), the EC received 17 notifications for cosmetic products containing hydroxyapatite in nano form.  The EC states that according to the notifications, this ingredient is used in both leave-on and rinse-off dermal and...