Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
It had to happen sooner or later. After several years spent by the UK and US governments conceptualizing, vetting, proposing, again vetting, developing, yet again vetting, and finally launching and reporting on their voluntary reporting programs for engineered nanoscale materials – only to have them largely spurned by the intended targets – other governments observing all this have decided that mandatory approaches are needed. Read More
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
It’s been nearly a year since EPA launched its voluntary Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program (NMSP) – and over three years since EPA was urged, by a diverse group of stakeholders, to do so only in conjunction with the development of mandatory reporting rules as a backstop and to limit the duration of the basic part of the program to at most six months.
EPA ignored that advice, and proceeded with an open-ended voluntary program and no development of backstop rules. Now EPA has issued its first evaluation of the NMSP. So what did EPA find? Read More
John Balbus, M.D., M.P.H., is Chief Health Scientist.
Some 216 delegates representing 26 countries converged on the largest city in China last week for the 7th meeting of the International Standards Organization (ISO) Technical Committee (TC 229) on Nanotechnologies.
In China, the turtle symbolizes cosmic order, strength, endurance and wisdom. In the US, the turtle has come to symbolize slow progress and not keeping up with the times. Which representation better captures what’s going on in ISO’s TC 229? Maybe a little of both. Read More
Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist.
Section 8(e) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requires any company that manufactures, imports, processes or distributes chemicals in the U.S. to notify EPA within 30 days if it obtains new information that “reasonably supports the conclusion that such substance or mixture presents a substantial risk of injury to health or the environment.” Are there Section 8(e) notices for nanomaterials? Read More
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
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
