US takes new step toward nano regulations

28 January 2008 20:57  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--US environmental officials announced a new step on Monday toward a regulatory framework for nanomaterials research and development (R&D) but it was quickly denounced by environmentalists as inadequate.

 

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) invited nanomaterials manufacturers, importers, processors and users to report to the agency within six months key information about their nanomaterials.

 

As part of its year-old nanoscale materials stewardship programme (NMSP), the agency said it will evaluate the information it expects to receive from industry “to help ensure the safe manufacture and use of those nanoscale materials”.

 

Nanomaterials have dimensions of 100 nanometres or less, with a nanometre being about one ten-thousandth the width of a human hair.  Nanoscale materials may have organisations and properties different than the same chemical substances at larger scales and offer the potential for new materials and applications.

 

However, nanomaterials also may pose risks to human health and the environment and are being viewed by EPA as falling within its regulatory authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

 

The information collection programme announced by the agency on Monday is voluntary, and it came under attack by the Environmental Defense group as being “too little, too late”.

 

“The EPA’s long-awaited voluntary reporting programme for engineered nanomaterials will not deliver critically needed information and serves only to postpone key decisions on how best to mitigate nanotechnology’s potential risks to human health and the environment,” Environmental Defense said.

 

The agency’s announcement on Monday follows a July 2007 EPA invitation asking industry and academia to define what sorts of information about nanomaterials the agency should be seeking in order to establish a scientific foundation for regulating nanoscale chemical substances.

 

However, industry and academic officials have joined environmentalists in complaining that EPA is moving too slowly to establish its inevitable regulatory framework. 

 

In commercial and academic sectors there is concern that delay in establishing an EPA regulatory platform is needlessly delaying research and the potential for wide scale industrial investment in nanomaterials.  Both researchers and chemical industry leaders are reluctant to make major investments in time, effort or capital until they are certain what areas of nanomaterials development and production will be barred or restricted by the agency.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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