You are here > Knowledge Base > Current Awareness > Article View

SAFENANO News

European regulation affecting nanomaterials
Created by assoceditor on 28/09/2012 08:48:58

Danish researchers have published a review of limitations and future recommendations for European Regulation affecting nanomaterials.


After learning about the potential risks associated with various specific nanomaterials, concerns have been raised about adequacy of existing regulation in Europe and what should be done to address any potential regulatory gaps related to nanomaterials. Understanding the limitations of the current regulation in regard to nanomaterials is a starting point in a democratic and transparent process towards adapting existing laws and facilitating an informed discussion about which kind of regulatory options best address the identified limitations. 

In an article published this month in the journal Dose Response, researchers Steffen Foss Hansen and Anders Baun from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), introduce key pieces of European legislation affecting nanomaterials, analyse their limitations, and provide a number of recommendations on how these can be overcome. 

The authors find that, although nanomaterials are in principle covered by the scope of many of the existing legislative frameworks, it is often unclear, if current regulations are actually applicable when it comes to specific nanomaterials and their diverse applications. According to Hansen & Baun, the main limitations seem to be: that requirements to do safety evaluations are triggered by production volumes by tonnage not tailored to the nanoscale, the profound lack of (eco)toxicological data, and that thresholds values and occupational exposure limits cannot be established with existing methodologies.

Click here to access the article through Dose Response.

Source: Dose Response

print
rating
  Comments

Terms Of Use | Privacy Statement
Copyright 2013 by SAFENANO @ IOM