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EXCLUSIVE Documents now available on the NIA Website
Published: Tuesday 1 December 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 (by the NIA Delegate)
The following Meeting Reports have been written by NIA delegates; these Meeting Reports are intended for the use by registered NIA Members only.
3rd - 4th November 2009:
3rd Safety for Success Dialogue: Building Trust in Nanotechnology
(Renaissance Hotel, 19 Rue du Parnasse, 1050 Brussels)
Background:
The steering group of the 3rd Nanotechnology ‘Safety for Success’-Dialogue (composed of industry associations (including the NIA), consumer associations, NGOs and other Commission DGs), strongly recommended moving away from presentations delivered by toxicologists on one-off toxicology results, but to start looking at real applications on the market; it was proposed to have the industries association help in organising the provision of company case studies.
SUMMARY & SOUNDBITES:
There was ‘concern that a case study on ‘nanotechnology in food’ is missing; while public engagement studies show that the public is concerned. This is an area that will very much backfire on the industries, if they are not coming forward soon.’
Many participants perceived the cross-examination of the Nanocyl-presenter [one of the presented case-studies on carbon nanotubes] as ‘slightly hostile’ and were worried about the conclusions to become overshadowed by a discussion in which every answer seemed to create numerous questions.
National government representatives and numerous representatives of the European Commission, however, counteracted the perceived imbalance by expressing their gratitude for the Nanocyl case study and the discussion it had initiated, and by pointing out how important it was to receive case studies like this, in order to start the dialogue.
Robert Madelin pointed out that a ‘public dialogue needs to be lead by the people, who do nanotech (i.e. industry, research, etc.), the Commission can only facilitate.’
'There is a definition problem: ‘nano’ is a size, but if this is used without taking history into account (i.e. a technology arising from the convergence of disciplines of technologies and sciences), one runs into problems.’ (Thomas Jung, SCENIHR)
‘Sustainability is a function of the right environmental, economic and societal policies.’
- If we are going to deliver innovation, we have to take the citizens with us.’
- ‘The Commission is not after rules, but after safety; the measure of the success of this dialogue is not the implementation of a new regulation, but the guarantee of safety.’
- ‘Mandatory reporting, if done on a national scale, will lead to the loss of a single market.’
9th October 2009: Stakeholder Conference: Nanomaterials on the Market - What Regulators Need to Know
10th September 2009: Scientific Hearing on Risk Assessment of Nanotechnologies
(Conference centre A, Borschette, Rue Froissart 36, 1040 Brussels 10th September 2009)