Tag Archives: NANoREG Toolbox

NANoREG halfway through its project (Environment, Health & Safety) term

A March 18, 2015 news item on Nanowerk announces a third NANoReg newsletter marking the halfway point in the project’s term (Note: Links have been removed),

NANoREG is the first FP7 project to deliver the answers needed by regulators and legislators on EHS [Environment, Health & Safety] by linking them to a scientific evaluation of data and test methods.

Time wise, the NANoREG project is now halfway. After setting the basic conditions for its R&D work, the project now focuses on the generation of reliable and comparable experimental data on the EHS aspects of the selected NANoREG nanomaterials. These data will form the basis for the main “end products” of the NANoREG project: the Regulatory Framework and the NANoREG Toolbox. Highlights of this experimental work and results will be shared with you in this 3rd NANoREG Newsletter (pdf).

The editorial for the 3rd issue of the NANoREG newsletter, which seems to have originated the news item, describes upcoming initiatives,

The Regulatory Framework and the NANoREG Toolbox just mentioned will be developed in close cooperation with organisations involved in standardisation and in the regulatory aspects of nanomaterials like ECHA [European Chemicals Agency], OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development], CEN [European Committee for Standardization] and ISO [International Standards Organization]. The results of other EU FP7 [Framework Programme 7] and H2020 [Horizon 2020] [research funding] projects will also be taken into account when developing these products. One of these projects is the H2020 project NANoREG II that focuses on Safe by design and that will start in the 2nd or 3rd quarter of 2015.

The coordinated and integrated approach in developing the Framework and the NANoREG Toolbox is one of the main elements of the H2020 funded Coordination and Support Action (CSA) “ProSafe” that recently had its Kick-Off meeting in Aix-en-Provence, France. Just like NANoREG this CSA is coordinated by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment and as such executed by me. Other elements of this CSA are – among others – the expansions of the involvement of EU and non-EU countries in the NANoREG project in order to broaden the platform of support for the NANoREG results world-wide (“NANoREG+”), the exploitation of synergies between the NANoREG project and other “nanosafety” projects and data management.

The outcome of the CSA will be a White Paper that can be used by policy makers, regulators and industry to establish methods for measuring and assessing the EHS aspects of nanomaterials and that will give guidance to industry how to implement “safe by design“. A forerunner of the White Paper will be subject of a three days scientific conference to be held at the end of 2016. It will include the results of the NANoREG project, the results of the evaluation of EHS data available at the OECD and results from other sources. After consulting Risk assessors and policymakers, the White Paper will be published in the first quarter of 2017.

This project has reached out beyond Europe for partners (from the editorial for the 3rd NANoREG newsletter),

It is quite a challenge we face. Given the expertise and scientific authority of our partners, including the Czech-,Brazilian- and South Korean parties that recently joined the NANoREG project, I am confident however that we will succeed in reaching our goal: creating a solid basis for a balanced combination of nanosafety and innovation that will be beneficial to society.

I hope NANoREG is successful with its goal of “creating a solid basis for a balanced combination of nanosafety and innovation that will be beneficial to society.”

I last wrote about NANoREG in a March 21, 2014 posting.