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EC expert committee SCENIHR publishes opinion and recommendations on nanotechnology definitions

Published: Friday 1 February 2008

The European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) published its Opinion on The scientific aspects of the existing and proposed definitions relating to products of nanoscience and nanotechnologies, adopted by the SCENIHR during the 21st plenary meeting of on 29th November 2007, developed on the European Commission request to:

  • To define a conceptual framework to assess the proposed definitions relating to nanoscience, nanotechnologies and products of nanotechnologies.
  • To make, on the basis of the framework, a scientific review of the strengths and weaknesses of existing and proposed definitions relating to nanosciences, nanotechnologies and products of nanotechnologies including those pertaining to risk assessment, taking also into account the growing importance of active nanosystems and the various needs of different users for defining the key concept and terms.
  • To identify a minimum set of essential criteria to be referred to when developing definitions relating to products of nanoscience and nanotechnologies or seeking to improve them. A short justification should accompany each criterion as well as the set itself.
The SCENIHR opinion, however, goes beyond the immediate mandate by including recommendations for a hierarchy of terminology in nanotechnology and nanoscience, including:
  • Nanoscale: A feature characterised by dimensions of the order of 100 nm or less.
  • Nanostructure: Any structure that is composed of discrete functional parts, either internally or at the surface, many of which have one or more dimensions of the order of 100 nm or less.
  • Nanomaterial: Any form of a material that is composed of discrete functional parts, many of which have one or more dimensions of the order of 100 nm or less.
  • Nanoparticle: A discrete entity which has three dimensions of the order of 100 nm or less.
This definition of Nanoparticle differs for the definition recently used by the European expert Scientific Committee on Consumer Products (SCCP) in their Opinion on Safety of Nanomaterials in Cosmetic Products, which concluded that a Nanoparticle was a ‘particle with one or more dimensions at the nanoscale.’

The European Commission has distanced itself from the SCENIHR Opinion, by publishing Accompanying information by Commission services, stating that ‘the opinion adopted by SCENIHR does not provide the requested scientific review of existing and proposed definitions, but it does include some definitions of relevance for nanoscience and nanotechnologies.’

Follow these links to download the SCENIHR mandate, the full SCENIHR Opinion on Definitions, or the Commission Services’ statement.