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OECD publishes new documents related to safety of manufactured nanomaterials
(Nanowerk News) The purpose of the OECD Series on the Safety of Manufactured Nanomaterials is to provide up-to-date information on the diverse activities at OECD related to human health and environmental safety. The two most recent additions to the series have jsut been published:
No. 27: List of Manufactured Nanomaterials and List of Endpoints for Phase One of the Sponsorship Programme for the Testing of Manufactured Nanomaterials: Revision
The list of representative manufactured nanomaterial has been selected by the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN) for use in its work. The word "representative" refers to those manufactured nanomaterials now, or soon to enter into commerce, for inclusion in a set of reference materials to support measurement, toxicology and risk assessment of nanomaterials. Therefore, the list was mainly selected taking into account those materials which are in commerce (or close to commercial use), but other criteria were also considered: for example, production volume, the likely availability of such materials for testing and the existing information that is likely to be available on such materials.
It was also emphasised that certain nanomaterials not included in the list may become important in the future and certain nanomaterials currently on the list may have (over time) reduced production and/ or use. Accordingly, the list should be considered as a "snapshot in time" of those nanomaterials in commerce or likely to enter into commerce in the near term. At the same time, some nanomaterials on the list may have variants5 that the WPMN may wish to consider in detail in the future.
Based on the current state of knowledge regarding the use and production of manufactured nanomaterials, the WPMN decided at its 7th meeting to remove carbon black and polystyrene from the list and to add gold-nanoparticles. The revised list of manufactured nanomaterials was adopted as follows;
Nanomaterials
  • Fullerenes (C60)
  • Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs)
  • Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)
  • Silver nanoparticles
  • Iron nanoparticles
  • Titanium dioxide
  • Aluminium oxide
  • Cerium oxide
  • Zinc oxide
  • Silicon dioxide
  • Dendrimers
  • Nanoclays
  • Gold nanoparticles
    		•
    The order in which the nanomaterials are listed above does not indicate a priority.
    No. 28: Compilation and Comparison of Guidelines Related to Exposure to Nanomaterials in Laboratories
    This document aims to provide an overview over recently published guidelines regarding the usage of nanomaterials in a laboratory scale. It is intended to perform a compilation of exposure mitigation guidelines relating to laboratories that handle nanomaterials. This issue is of great importance since there are no globally standardized protection measures determined for nanomaterials. The insight in the state of the art of good practice for nanomaterials in laboratories may not only be important for research laboratories, but it can furthermore be of great interest for small industrial enterprises, which produce or process nanomaterials in a laboratory scale.
    This document focuses on both pointing out publications of primary importance and representing a general overview of the international spectrum of publications in that topic. The guidance reports were mostly gained by research via internet. Research criteria used in this internet research were relevant search terms like 'guidance', 'nanomaterial', 'research' and 'laboratory'. Further publications were obtained by selection of available collections of the participating authors. The guidance documents were chosen particularly on the basis of their level of detail in the respective aspects of protection measures. This compilation is categorized by 1) specific nanomaterial guidelines relating to laboratories (herein after referred to as category S(pecific)), 2) general nanomaterial guidelines with regards/ applicable to laboratories (category G(eneral)), as well as 3) general laboratory guidelines with regards/applicable to nanomaterial (category L(aboratories)).
    This aim was based on the assumption that only a very limited amount of specific nanomaterial guidelines relating to laboratories is published. However, an unexpectedly high number of specific guidelines were found. For this reason, this literature compilation focuses mainly on category S guidelines and is structured based on the different topics that are addressed. The statements of category S guidelines are supplemented by guidelines from category G and L, if indicated. Strictly speaking, guidelines of the categories G and L are only included if they provide additional information content in order to avoid a high degree of redundancy.
    Download the document here (pdf).
    Source: OECD