EU Assessment of Environmental and Health Risks Posed by Nanomaterials

Abstract

By Jordan Niblack, Neuropsychology

Advisor: Michele Vialet

Presentation ID: AM_ATRIUM04

Abstract: Nanomaterials are a fundamental asset to the advancement of innovative technologies in a vast field of interests (durable goods, garment, food, wound dressing but also medical diagnosis, target-drug delivery, regenerative medicine, among others). Nanomaterials exhibit novel implications that society needs to understand. This project aims to select a handful of uses of nanomaterials, discuss currently acknowledged environmental and health risks, and examine how the European Union current policies and regulation standards assess these risks. In its 2015 Guidance on the biological risk assessment of medical devices containing nanomaterials, the SCENIHR (Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly-Identified Health Risk) asked for more data and more methodological initiatives to update assessment recommendations and issue rules. While the US and China have made and are making large nanomaterial-research investments, the European Union is trailing far behind. My goal is to find out what role the EU intends to play in nanoscience, nanoscience applications, and the study of risks.