The Research Institute of Science for Safety and Sustainability (RISS) of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan, last month released english translations of the executive summaries of their interim reports on the Risk Assessment of Manufactured Nanomaterials, covering titanium dioxide (TiO₂), fullerenes (C₆₀) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs).

The risk assessments, developed as part of a project sponsored by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO), focus on human health risks, in particular occupational risk management due to growth in the industries involving nanomaterials.  Although the project is still on-going and conclusions have not yet been reached, the interim reports have been released in order to allow external experts to submit critical comments and suggestions for incorporation into the final reports.

Due to the limited data available, the researchers have not been able to develop hazard assessments and exposure assessments applicable to all the various routes.  Instead, a framework applicable to a number of substances and situations, with supplementary data generated by manufacturers, is proposed.  The interim reports present procedures to enable a provisional value of an acceptable concentration in the occupational environment to be established.  For TiO₂, a provisional value for an acceptable exposure concentration in the occupational environment is proposed.  For C₆₀, only rough figures of acceptable exposure concentrations have been generated due to a paucity of inhalation exposure data. In the case of CNTs, it was not possible to discuss standards of acceptable exposure concentration.  It is hoped that the final outcomes of these reports will contribute to the risk management at manufacturing sites.

In addition to the interim reports, AIST-RISS have also published a concept paper entitled "The Principles and Basic Approach to Risk Assessment of Manufactured Nanomaterials", which summarises and describes the principles and basic approaches used in their risk assessment approach for manufactured nanomaterials.

All of the documents are available for download from the AIST-RISS website.

Source: based on materials provided by AIST-RISS