Abstract
Nanomaterials offer new technical and commercial opportunities but, due to their low particle size, raise occupational health and safety concerns and may also pose risks to the consumers and the environment. In the last 15 years, many standards have been developed in the area of nanotechnologies, taking into account, namely, occupational risk and safety. This paper presents an overview of the standards in this area, with special emphasis at the ISO level, but also at European level, where standards are considered as an important support for legislation. A brief presentation of five relevant ISO standards is included. Relevant European Standards are also mentioned. The control banding approach for occupational risk management applied to engineered nanomaterials, according to ISO/TS 12901-2:2014, is presented. Standards are essential for society and should, in fact, be considered an important tool for companies to support sustainable products and process innovation.
Highlights
Nanotechnology has been promoted as the “ big thing” that will transform everyday life through the creation of numerous new products and enhanced materials for improved quality of life [1]. there are still few regulations regarding consumer products of nanomaterials, international organizations and the developed countries are trying to design guidelines and standards for toxicity evaluation and regulation plans, taking into account the nano-safety of humans and the environment
There is a specific REACH registration system for nanomaterials, which came into force from January 2020 (Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/1881 of 3 December 2018), so it is recommended that the suppliers of chemicals which incorporate nanomaterials include more information on the hazards and measures for risk mitigation in the safety data sheets, based, for instance, on the recommendations presented in International Standardization Organization (ISO)/TR 13329
This study has presented an overview of the standard documents related to Safety and Risk relevant for Nanotechnologies
Summary
Nanotechnology has been promoted as the “ big thing” that will transform everyday life through the creation of numerous new products and enhanced materials for improved quality of life [1]. Some of the leading standard-setting organizations and their relevant nanotechnology committees are the International Standardization Organization (ISO) Technical Committee (TC) 229 on Nanotechnologies, ASTM International’s Committee E56 (Nanotechnology) (formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials), the International Electrotechnical Commission Technical Committee 113 (Nanotechnology Standardization for Electrical and Electronics Products and Systems), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Nanotechnology Council. The ISO standard describing the use of the control banding approach for occupational risk management applied to engineered nanomaterials has been used in a case study in a textile finishing company
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