On 12 January 2016, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated a final rule on ‘Reporting and Recordkeeping Requirements’ for chemical substances when manufactured or processes as nanoscale materials. (link is external)
Under Section 8(a) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), ‘this rule involves one-time reporting for existing discrete forms of certain nanoscale materials, and a stading one-time reporting requirement for new diescrete forms of certain nanoscale materials before those new forms are manufactured or processed’.
Small manufacturers and processors (with sales under $11 million per year), R&D, and substances already reported to EPA are excluded from reporting.
For this one-time regsitration, EPA requires information on ‘specific chemical identity, material characterization, physical chemical properties, production volume, use, methods of manufacturing and processing, exposure and release information, and existing information concerning environmental and health effect’ of the registered nanoscale materials.
The French Ministry of the Environment, Energy and the Sea has released its 2016 issue of the report ‘Elements from the Declaratiosn of Substances at the Nanoscale’ (Éléments issus des déclarations des substances à l’état nanoparticulaire).
The report shows a stable number of entities registering nanomaterials. It identifies a small drop in the overall number of declarations submitted in 2016, this year, 13 353 submissions were entered in the French platform r-nano.fr. The most declared use remains Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing, with 9335 declarations, followed by 2965 declarations for Formulation (mixing) of preparations and/or reconditioning (except alloys). Read more at http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/Rapport_public_R-Nano_2016.pdf
The Swedish Chemicals Agency (Kemi) is currently consulting with industry on a draft Regulation for companies to provide information on nanomaterials in chemical products to the Swedish products register by 2019.
The consultation period started on 23 November and will end on 24 March. It was planned for June to September last year but the agency delayed it.
France’s Ministry of Health, agriculture and economy has instructed the country’s food health and safety agency, Anses, to investigate whether the additive E171 poses a risk for human health after reseachers reported it could cause precancerous lesions in rats. E171 is used as a food additive to whiten toothpaste and chewing gum and contains nanoparticles of titanium dioxide, a naturally occurring metal oxide.
