The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed, in December of last year, significant new use rules (SNURs) for 17 chemicals, including carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. Now several unions and environmental health groups are urging the EPA to strengthen worker protections in the proposed new rules. Read more

“The risks and benefits of this emerging technology are still being discovered, yet the development, use and manufacturing of nanomaterials are being conducted with little transparency and inadequate regulatory oversight. This is particularly concerning to the food industry where human exposure is virtually guaranteed. Read more

The French Ministry for Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transportation and Housing has recently published a final decree regarding the mandatory reporting of nanomaterials. The decree, which was signed in February 2012 and will be applicable from January 2013, requires companies that manufacture, import, distribute nanomaterials in quantities  of ≥ 100g to submit to the authorities an annual declaration containing the quantity and use information. Read more

The Food and Drug Administration issued two draft guidances April 20 on the assessment of the effects of nanotechnology on food and cosmetics safety. Read more

As nanoparticles increasingly make their way into consumer products and the environment, toxicologists want to understand their effects on human health. Ideally, they’d like to develop models that predict a material’s toxicity based on its chemical properties. Now a research team reports the first such model for metal oxide nanoparticles that uses the materials’ electrical and solubility properties Read more

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The percentage of electronic waste occupying our landfills has grown at an alarming rate over the last decade, giving rise to concerns about the toxicity of components used in consumer electronics.

Researchers at the University of Florida are looking for ways to minimize environmental hazards associated with a material likely to play an increasingly important role in the manufacture of these goods in the future. The results of their most recent studies are published in the March 2012 issue of Nanotoxicology. Read more

What are the implications of nanotechnology for the general public? What use is it to them? What are the risks and benefits? These are the types of questions that an online Knowledge Debate hopes to provoke. Read more

The European Commission has released the the third edition of the Nanosafety Cluster compendium (pdf). It documents the status of important projects on nanomaterial toxicity and exposure monitoring, integrated risk management, research infrastructure and coordination and support activities. Read more

A research team comprising Jean-Claude Bonzongo and Kirk Ziegler from the University of Florida is working on ways to reduce environmental hazards of carbon nanotubes. Read more

At the American Chemical Society’s 243rd National Meeting & Exposition, a research team led by Paresh C. Ray from the Jackson State University in Mississippi has delivered a presentation on a gold nanoparticle-based method to rapidly detect the presence of Salmonella bacteria, particularly the multiple-drug resistant (MDR) strains in lettuce. Read more

A research team from the University of Limerick (UL) led by Dr. Syed Tofail from UL’s Materials and Surface Science Institute (MSSI) has joined SANOWORK, a project funded by European Commission (EC), to evaluate and control potential risks related to nanomaterials. Read more

Many chemists think encapsulating cancer drugs inside nanoparticles could lead to more efficient and specific drug delivery. But these nanoparticles often struggle to penetrate inside a tumor or to release their drug payloads once they’re in place. Now researchers demonstrate a solution to both problems using polymer nanoparticles that expand and contract when excited by certain wavelengths of light . Read more

Infant lungs are particularly prone to nanoparticle deposition, be it from pollution or inhaled medicines, as air flows differently inside them, say US researchers. Read more

Presently, many consumer products contain nano-sized materials (NMs) to improve material properties, product quality and ease of use. NMs in food additives and in cosmetic articles (e.g., tooth paste) may be taken up by the oral route. As adverse effects of environmental nanoparticles, like ultrafine particles, have been reported, consumers worry about potential risks when using products containing NMs. Read more

The use of nanoparticles (NPs) in industry is increasing rapidly, but knowledge of the occupational health and safety aspects of NPs is still limited. This is because quantitative NP exposure levels are scarce, and the metrics to describe doses are unclear.Read more

Nanotechnology is considered as one of the key technologies of the 21st century and promises revolution in our world. Objects at nano scale, take on novel properties and functions that differ markedly from those seen in the corresponding bulk counterpart primarily because of their small size and large surface area Read more

Due to the large number of possible applications of nanoparticles in cosmetic and medical products, the possible hazards of nanoparticles in the human body are a major concern. Read more

Researchers from BioSeek and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have presented the evaluations of the biological activity of different chemicals and nanomaterials in the background of primary human cell biology at the Society of Toxicology’s annual meeting. Read more

Researchers from BioSeek and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have presented the evaluations of the biological activity of different chemicals and nanomaterials in the background of primary human cell biology at the Society of Toxicology’s annual meeting. Read more