October 29, 2008 | Posted by Cal Baier-Anderson in Carbon Nanotubes, Health, Research, Risk Assessment
Cal Baier-Anderson, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist.
The manufacture of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is a very complicated business. Different production processes leave behind different kinds of metal catalysts, which yield differences in physical and chemical – as well as toxicological – properties of the CNTs. Read more »
October 13, 2008 | Posted by Richard Denison in Carbon Nanotubes, EPA, Environment, Health, Inhalation, Regulation, TSCA, Testing, Worker Safety
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
Since my first post concerning EPA’s Consent Order, I’ve been reflecting further on the management conditions it imposes – or, more accurately, on what conditions it doesn’t impose. The Order’s only such conditions address potential worker exposure. What about the rest of the nanomaterial’s lifecycle? Read more »
October 9, 2008 | Posted by Richard Denison in Carbon Nanotubes, EPA, Environment, Health, Inhalation, Regulation, TSCA, Testing, Worker Safety
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
[Part II of this post is available here.]
Word hit the street today that EPA intends to make public a “sanitized” version of a Consent Order it has negotiated with a producer of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). [A link will be provided once available.] We obtained a copy of the Order, which has redacted all information claimed confidential by the company involved. What can we learn from this well-scrubbed Order? Read more »
October 2, 2008 | Posted by John Balbus in Environment, Health, ISO, Industry, U.S. Government
John Balbus, M.D., M.P.H., is Chief Health Scientist.
At its most recent meeting a few weeks ago, the US Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the International Standards Organization (ISO) Technical Committee on Nanotechnologies approved a motion to have ISO develop a Technical Report based on the EDF-Dupont Nano Risk Framework (NRF). Or to put it another way in acronym-laden Washington-speak, the US TAG to the ANSI-accredited ISO TC229 approved a TR based on the EDF-DD NRF. Read more »
September 19, 2008 | Posted by Richard Denison in Carbon Nanotubes, Health, Research
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
The insurance industry is out in front on nanotechnology yet again. As the giant reinsurer Swiss Re did way back in May 2004 with its groundbreaking report Nanotechnology: Small matter, many unknowns, it is once again the insurance industry sounding an early alarm about nanomaterials. In this case, it’s the Continental Western Insurance Group (CWG), which has just announced that it will exclude coverage for “the, as of yet, unknown and unknowable risks created by the products and processes that involve nanotubes.” Read more »
August 7, 2008 | Posted by Cal Baier-Anderson in Carbon Nanotubes, Consumer Products, Health, Risk Assessment
Cal Baier-Anderson, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist.
We often think of nanotechnology as the latest product of ultra-modern science, but humans did not invent the nanoscale. We were not even the first to use materials with nanoscale features: The gecko beat us to it by several million years. Even more impressive, this little reptile has managed to use nanoscale materials apparently without experiencing any ill effects. It remains to be seen if we will be able to do this.
Read more »
July 22, 2008 | Posted by Cal Baier-Anderson in Consumer Products, Health, Industry, Regulation, Worker Safety
Cal Baier-Anderson, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist.
Andrew Maynard, of the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, recently blogged about an Australian study that documented an odd effect of sunscreens containing nanoscale titanium dioxide (TiO2). The study was prompted by the observation that installers of metal roofs who used these sunscreens inadvertently transferred the product onto the roofs. In places where the workers’ skin had touched the painted metal surfaces, the paint showed accelerated weathering. Why? Because the particular type of nanoscale TiO2 in the sunscreen (the anatase crystal form) is photoactive – when it absorbs UV light, it releases free radicals that speed up the oxidation of the underlying paint.
July 16, 2008 | Posted by Cal Baier-Anderson in Consumer Products, Health, Risk Management, Worker Safety
Cal Baier-Anderson, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist.
Ah, summer! It’s a great time to be outdoors, enjoying the warm, sunny weather. Before you go outside, be sure to grab your sunscreen, that essential product that protects against skin cancer and sun damage. But which kind of sunscreen is best? There is a mesmerizing array of sunscreen options, but for our purposes let’s limit the question to one: Nano or not nano?
June 9, 2008 | Posted by Cal Baier-Anderson in Consumer Products, Environment, Health, Research
Cal Baier-Anderson, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist.
The proliferation of nanoscale materials in consumer products is impressive: nano titanium dioxide and zinc oxide in sunscreen, buckyballs in face creams, and nanosilver in socks are but a few examples of what is currently available for purchase. But they make me wonder: what happens when the nanomaterials in or released from these products are washed down the drain? Read more »
June 6, 2008 | Posted by Richard Denison in Environment, Health, NNI, Policy
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act of 2008 (H.R. 5940), by a vote of 407-6. Among other changes, the bill calls for a number of much-needed improvements in how the NNI addresses health and environmental concerns associated with nanotechnology. See EDF’s news release issued today.
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