Tag Archives: control banding

Nano Risk Management from France

France’s Agency for Food, Environment, Health and Occupational Safety (Anses, agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail) has proposed a new technique for assessing the risks of nano-based materials. From the news article by Rory Harrington on foodqualitynews.com,

The body has proposed using a method known as “control banding”. The tool, originally developed in the pharmaceutical industry, is designed to guide risk management in fields where there is uncertainty about the required data needed. In this case, the uncertainty centres on both the hazards of nanomaterials and exposure levels. It uses both existing information but also makes a number of assumptions, said Anses.

Under the system, new products are allocated ‘bands’ – which have been developed according to the hazard level of known or similar products. It also takes into account exposure in a work environment.

The method derives minimum prevention measures – either for individuals or collectively – by combining qualitative risk assessment with a risk control band.

“The tool thus allows risk managers to apply a graduated response by taking into account both the potential hazards represented by the nanomaterials concerned and the estimated levels of exposure”, said French scientists.

Anses has produced a report about this proposed technique, Development of a specific Control Banding Tool for Nanomaterials. It turns out there’s a Canadian connection, Claude Ostiguy, Director of the Research and Expertise Support Department at the Institut de Recherche Robert-Sauvé en Santé et en Sécurité du Travail (IRSST), Montréal, Canada was a member of the expert panel for this project. His specialties are chemistry, industrial hygiene, and nanomaterials. I have written about Dr. Ostiguy previously in my Sept. 27, 2010 posting on Québec’s then new report on the risks of engineered nanoparticles and in my June 23, 2010 posting about the hearing that Canada’s House of Commons Standing Committee on Health held about nanomaterials.

The report (this version of it) is in English but the translation from the French is a little awkward. As for control banding, that looks a lot like a set of guidelines but with more thought than most guidelines I’ve seen.