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EXCLUSIVE Documents now available on the NIA Website
Published: Monday 14 June 2010
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.
This page provides members with reviews and exclusive information on topical issues, made available by the NIA and/or third parties for use by NIA Members only.
Background:
Recent legislative proposals to overhaul the US Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) aim to greatly increase the level of regulatory scrutiny of nanomaterials. The legislation would authorize EPA to regard all nanomaterials as new chemicals or as having new uses, subject to requirements for notification and review by EPA in advance of manufacture or use. This change is targeted particularly at nanoscale versions of bulk materials already on the TSCA inventory, such as nanoscale titanium dioxide. Further, manufacturers and processors would have to report to EPA about the ‘special substance characteristics’ of chemicals that may affect risk, another provision specifically targeting nanomaterials.
The ‘Safe Chemicals Act of 2010’ (SCA) bill in the Senate, S. 3209, and the discussion draft for the ‘Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010’ in the House of Representatives, both released on April 15, 2010, would make extensive changes to the industrial chemicals management framework in the United States. Part of the impetus for these proposals was the idea, presented at several earlier Congressional hearings, that the current TSCA framework should be modified specifically to better address emerging technologies, particularly nanotechnology. The legislation therefore proposes to allow EPA to deem all nanomaterials to be new chemicals or as having new uses, requiring submission of information before manufacture, import, or processing. Ironically, EPA already plans to require similar information from manufacturers, importers, and processors of nanomaterials whose bulk counterparts are on the TSCA Inventory through a significant new use rule, scheduled to be proposed later in 2010.
This alert highlights and provides background on some of the changes these legislative and agency proposals would present for manufacturers and processors of nanomaterials.
Soundbites:
- Briefly, under the legislation, chemical manufacturers (including importers) and processors would, for the first time, be responsible for submitting a minimum data set for all chemicals in commerce and for establishing that their chemicals meet a safety standard of ‘reasonable certainty of no harm’.
- Manufacturers and processors would also be required to submit, within a year of enactment, a ‘declaration of current manufacture or processing,’ which would include [...]
We are grateful to the Nanotechnology Team at Beveridge & Diamond P.C. for sharing this alert with NIA Members.
Registered NIA Members can download the full Beveridge & Diamond Alert from the 'Members only'-area on the NIA website by following the link to 'Topical Briefings'.