Posted: February 24, 2009

(Nanowerk News) The document was signed by Anatoliy Chubais, CEO and Director General of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO), and Gennady Onishchenko, head of the Russian Agency for Health and Consumer Rights (Rospotrebnadzor).

The sides have agreed to provide mutual systematic, scientific and technical support in validation and confirmation of nanoproducts safety, implementation of nanotechnologies and creation of nanotechnological production. In particular, the document specifies a study of influence of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials on human health, the creation of scientific methods and technical and regulatory provision of safety to nanotechnologies and nanotechnological production, and the creation of an integrated system for safety evaluation and validation.

The Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies, which initiated the signing of this agreement, pays special attention to issues of safe manufacture and use of materials and production created with the application of nanotechnologies. The Corporation has made it its mission to ensure safety over the entire life cycle of nanotechnology production (development, production, consumption, utilization), for which it is necessary to have an integrated policy including the inception of a nationwide system of safety evaluation and validation.

These issues relate in different degrees to the following competencies:

The Federal Agency for Technical Regulation and Metrology (Rostekhregulirovanie); The Russian Agency for Health and Consumer Rights (Rospotrebnadzor); The Federal Biomedical Agency (FMBA); - The Federal Service for the Supervision of Public Health and Social Development (Roszdravnadzor);

At present the Corporation is developing an integrated system of safety evaluation and validation, based on interaction with all these institutions. In this line, on April 2008 an agreement between RUSNANO and Rostekhregulirovanie was signed. Same agreements with the FMBA and Roszdravnadzor are to be signed in the nearest future. The joint efforts of the Corporation and the above mentioned institutions are forming the integrated system for the control of safety of nanomaterials and nanotechnological production.

The Corporation also conducts work with the national organizations of other countries on the harmonization of requirements and procedures of the safety evaluation and validation in nanotechnology production. In one instance, a memorandum on collaboration in the standardization and certification of nanoprods between RUSNANO and the Shanghai Research Engineering Center for Nanotechnologies was signed at the end of October 2008. Work is underway on similar agreements with qualified organizations from South Korea, Taiwan, Finland, Germany and other countries.