SAFENANO - Europe’s Centre of Excellence in Nanotechnology Safety
Established in 2006, SAFENANO is Europe's Centre of Excellence in Nanosafety, providing industry, academia and governments with independent authoritative expertise and state-of-the-art facilities to address risk and safety issues.
SAFENANO is based at the UK’s Institute of Occupational Medicine - a major independent centre of scientific excellence in the fields of occupational and environmental health, hygiene and safety.
We bring together multidisciplinary expertise in hazard assessment, exposure, toxicology, occupational hygiene and risk assessment, facilitating the responsible development of safe nanomaterials and nanotechnology-enabled products by making use of an integrated approach combining research, review activities, expert opinion and best practice training.
We offer research, consultancy, laboratory and field services to help ensure that people’s health is not damaged by conditions at work or in the environment, including:
- Duty of care advisory services - designed to help industry, commerce and the public sector maintain a healthy workplace and to comply with regulation such as REACH, Health & Safety at Work, and Food Safety amongst others;
- Product safety and toxicology services – helping industry understand and minimise the health and environmental risks from the nanomaterials manufactured, used or incorporated into products;
- Particle detection & analysis - using a combination of industry-standard and state-of-the-art instruments and techniques to provide the data needed to inform risk assessment and risk management decisions;
- Information assessment and review services – covering the breadth of nanotechnology EHS and emerging issues, built on IOM's many years of conducting reviews and preparing position papers for a variety of audiences in the private and public sector.
These services are supported by a free-to-access Information Service, focusing on interpreting and transferring the emerging scientific evidence about the potential risks to health and the environment arising from the development and use of nanotechnology.