The myth of Canada’s nanomaterials reporting plan/inventory lives on. A group (Program on Reproductive Health and Environment) at the University of California in San Francisco just issued a draft set of policy recommendations titled “A Nanotechnology Policy Framework: Policy Recommendations for Addressing Potential Health Risks from Nanomaterials in California.”  From the news item on Nanowerk,

This draft document addresses the new challenges that nanomaterials present to the policy and risk assessment process because of their unique properties. It draws upon lessons we can learn from past chemical policy experiences and other recent nanotechnology reports in making recommendations for California. There will be a public meeting to discuss the draft document and receive feedback from the Science Advisory Panel and the general public. All public comments must be received by May 5, 2010.

I took a look at the report and found this on page 19,

Canada recently moved to implement a new program that requires manufacturers of nanomaterials to provide physical, chemical and toxicity data about nanoproducts they make in more than one kilogram quantities. They will then use this data to create new risk assessments and further regulation.

Unfortunately, there is no such program currently being implemented in Canada but it is mentioned in reports from other jurisdictions such as this one from California and, if memory serves, the January 2010 House of Lords report on nanotechnologies and food. There is never a citation for this documented ‘fact’ and I suspect that this is due to the ‘information’ being copied from one report to the next without any authentification. (Frankly, I probably would have done the same had I been in that situation. You don’t have time to track down every single assertion in every document [from reputable sources] you review before preparing a report.)

I last posted about the reporting plan/inventory/scheme here as part of an introduction to questions to Health Canada about the proposed plan and also about a nanomaterials definition.