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EXCLUSIVE Documents now available on the NIA website

Published: Sunday 1 March 2009

Registered NIA Members can now download the following exclusive documents (i.e. Meeting Presentations, Meeting Notes, etc.), recently uploaded onto the secure ‘Members only’-area of the NIA website.

 

Meeting Reports (from the NIA delegate)
This page contains exclusive meeting/conference/workshop reports written by attending representatives of the NIA

 
18th – 19th February 2009
2nd Annual Conference on  Nanotechnology Law, Regulation and Policy
(organiser: Food and Drug Law Institute (FDLI), Washington DC; held at L’Enfant Plaza Hotel, Washington DC)
 
Summary
          Those that have been to the 1st FDLI Annual Conference on Nanotechnology Law, Regulation and Policy (held a year ago at the same place), assured this year’s delegates and attendees that both conferences were almost identical in programme and debate. [...] a large part of the conference was spent on bringing the mixed audience in the room onto the same level of understanding of the issues, leaving little opportunity to move forward in initialising ‘next steps’ and logical action.
         
Programme Excerpts
          After a crash-course session on ‘Science of Nanotechnology’, during which Andrew Maynard (PEN) did his best to provide the most important understanding of science and technology behind nanotechnology and its surrounding toxicological issues, the conference focused on the questions of ‘responsibility’, legal protection’, ‘potential litigation’, ‘insurance’ and other aspects of risk management and down-stream application of potential regulation.
 
Sound Bites
          A number of speakers provided useful information for the nanotechnology industries; amongst these were the following speakers and news:
  • Lynn Bergeson (Bergeson & Campbell) reminded the audience that the 1st March 2009 was an important date for companies working with carbon nanotubes in the US: [...]
  • An impressive turn-out of FDA representatives [...] reported on FDA’s internal discussions and activities in nanotech: […]
  • [...]

Registered NIA Members can download the full Meeting Note from the ‘Members only’-area on the NIA website (by following the link to ‘Meeting Notes (from the NIA Delegate)').

 

Related Links:
‘Hazardous waste?’ – ‘God help you, if you say ‘yes’ to that.’
Reporting from the 2nd Annual Conference on Nanotechnology Law, Regulation and Policy (organised by the US Food and Drug Law Institute, held in Washington DC on the 18th and 19th February 2009), a conference delegate, Rick Weiss, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Science Progress, sums up his impression of the debate with the words: ‘Whether it’s about suing or being sued, it seems that nanotechnology—and every other new technology with a still-uncertain benefit-to-risk ratio—is a 21st century Full Employment Act for attorneys.’ (23rd February 2009)

EPA plans stricter manufacturing conditions and data-call in for nanomaterials
In October 2008, the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) published a notice on the TSCA inventory status of carbon nanotubes and announced that, some time after 1st March 2009, ‘EPA anticipates focusing its compliance monitoring efforts to determine if companies are complying with TSCA section 5 requirements for carbon nanotubes.’ (21st February 2009)

US EPA publishes notice on TSCA inventory status of carbon nanotubes
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published in the Federal Register a notice entitled ‘Toxic Substances Control Act Inventory Status of Carbon Nanotubes’, giving notice of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) requirements potentially applicable to carbon nanotubes (CNTs). (31st October 2008)