Nanomaterial risk profiling puts safety first

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Researchers are working on an industry-tailored strategy

for the -assessment of nanoparticles and nano-enabled products. Their approach, as described in the Journal of Chemical Health and Safety, focuses on creating a risk profile for a given nanomaterial (NM), taking into account industrial needs across sectors. The process would determine which materials or processes pose risks, where in a material's life cycle these risks occur, and their impact on society.
The work is supported by three ongoing projects receiving support from the EU's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme: INSPIRED (INdustrial Scale Production of Innovative nanomateRials for printEd Devices), HI-RESPONSE (Innovative High Resolution Electro-Static printing of Multifunctional Materials) and NANOGENTOOLS (Developing and implementation of a new generation of nanosafety assessment tools).
An evolving field
While the size, structure and properties of NMs offer significant technological advances, their development also brings  to  and the environment. Existing nano-specific legislation at an EU level is vague, the paper states; as a result the regulatory environment for industry is uncertain. With the field constantly evolving, the European Commission has identified appropriate management of nano-related risks as a vital issue for the success of nanotechnologies.
As NMs are considered a chemical substance, they are bound by the regulatory framework REACH and like other substances are required to be registered centrally. But some Member States have developed their own national registers, and in this context, getting NMs on to the European market has become increasingly difficult. This hampers the region's potential for innovation and may affect consumer confidence in emerging nanotechnology.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-10-nanomaterial-profiling-safety.html#jCp