OECD check activity for safe use of manufactured nanomaterials

The OECD has released a review of information on activities related to the safety of manufactured nanomaterials.

The OECD has just released the document, Current Development/Activities on the Safety of Manufactured Nanomaterials. It is a overview of information on current/planned activities related to the safety of manufactured nanomaterials in OECD member countries and other delegations that attended the 8th meeting of OECD’s Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (Paris France, 16-18 March 2011).

Australia’s bit

Australia was at the meeting and the following is the basic stuff we have been up to in this area – more detail in the report:

• The National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) has introduced a working definition for industrial nanomaterials and new administrative arrangements for regulating nanoforms of new chemicals, effective from 1 January 2011.
• Safe Work Australia is implementing a Nanotechnology Work Health and Safety Program. Six research reports and a work health and safety assessment tool for handling engineered nanomaterials have been published.
• Safe Work Australia and the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science & Research (DIISR) hosted the Nanotechnology Work Health and Safety Symposium on 9-10 September 2010. The symposium brought together a wide range of stakeholders, and featured presentations on projects commissioned under the Nanotechnology Work Health and Safety Program and panel discussions to examine the implications of the research findings and options for addressing work health and safety issues in nanotechnology.
• FSANZ has completed a review of the scientific literature relevant to oral bioavailability, as a determinant of potential toxicological novelty, of nanomaterials.

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