By Porter Wright on In a notice published in the Federal Register for 05/04/2011, the FDA Science Board, an advisory panel that provides advice to the FDA Commissioner and the Commission on "specific complex and technical issues as well as, emerging issues within the scientific community, in industry and academia . . . .advice to the Agency on keeping pace with … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is part of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Services located in UCSF’s School of Medicine. PRHE just published its "Recommendations for Addressing Potential Health Risks from Nanomaterials in California” which was commissioned by California’s Office of … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Here is an advance copy of a new multi-walled carbon nanotube significant new use rule being published tomorrow in the federal register. It applies only to the specific carbon nanotubes that were the subject of PMN P-08-199, and binds anyone who intends to manufacture, import, or process the specific chemical substance. It is largely consistent … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Nano Engineering Students Create World’s Smallest Images of Stephen Colbert Two nanotechnology engineering students at the University of Waterloo, in Waterloo, Canada, have created the world’s smallest images of comedian Stephen Colbert. The undergraduate students, John Maier and Erin Bedford, made the images using aluminum sputtered onto substrate through a photoresist mask. The smallest … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The May 3, 2011 edition of Chemistry World carried an interesting article by James Urqhart — Titanate cigarette filter — regarding several Chinese researchers who have developed a cigarette filter which employs nanoscale TiO2 which supposedly filters out harmful tobacco smoke constituents. One of the researchers claims that "[a] great range of harmful compounds including … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On May 4, 2011, research institute RTI International will host a policy forum entitled, "Nanotechnology: The Huge Challenge of Regulating Tiny Technologies." The forum will be held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, where experts will discuss the issues and concerns regarding the difficulties faced by agencies in drafting federal regulation and … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Kadmon Pharmaceuticals LLC ("Kadmon"), a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing medicines and therapies in the areas of oncology, infectious diseases, and immunology, has entered into an agreement with research and development company Nano Terra, Inc. ("Nano Terra"), whereby Kadmon would acquire Nano Terra’s perpetual, worldwide exclusive licenses to three novel, clinical stage product candidates … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The Nanodermatology Society ("NDA" or "the society"), an organization of doctors, scientists, and researchers, was founded with the mission to "promote a greater understanding of the scientific and medical aspects of nanotechnology in skin health and disease." The society recently addressed concerns about the use of nano materials to formulate nanoparticulate titanium dioxide and … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Archaeologists excavating 2400 year old tombs at a site in Turkey are adding something new to the tools of the trade. According to a recent article highly specialized powders consisting of nanoparticles will be applied to the rock surfaces in square-centimeter doses. The nanoparticles will be specially designed to be chemically compatible with the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The NanoSafety Consortium for Carbon just submitted a proposed toxicity testing agreement to EPA under Section 4 of the Toxic Substances Control Act covering a range of nanoscale materials including multi-walled carbon nanotubes, double-walled carbon nanotubes, single-walled carbon nanotubes, and graphene. Key elements for the curious: The chemical substances to be tested … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The 2011 J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Environmental Law Conference will be held on March 23-24 2011 at George Washington University’s Jacob Burns Moot Court Room. The subject of the conference, "Environmental Governance at the Leading Edge of Technology", will explore the need for the possible structure of anticipatory governance systems that are capable of protecting … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On March 21, 2011, Porter Wright partner John C. Monica, Jr. will participate as a presenter at the annual conference of Jurimetrics: The Journal of Law, Science, and Technology at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. The conference, entitled "The Biggest Issues for the Smallest Stuff: Regulation and Risk Management of … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In the Federal Register for February 15, 2011, the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office announced it would hold a workshop on March 10 & 11 2011 to provide an open forum and engage in an active scientific discussion about environmental health and safety questions for nanomaterials and nanotechnology-enabled products, to encourage joint US-EU programs of work that … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on If you’re near Monash University on Friday March 11, you might want to stop by the Monash University Law Chambers (at 472 Bourke Street in Melbourne) to attend the launching party for "International Handbook on Regulating Nanotechnologies" published by Edward Elgar Publishing – wonder if that means there’ll be some "Pomp and CIrcumstance" ? The International … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On February 17 2011, the EPA, in conjunction with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the UK’s Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC), announced the awarding of $12 million ($5.5 million from the EPA, $500,000 from CPSC, and $6 million from NERC) to three consortia to fund research aimed at providing a greater understanding of potential … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on "Nanotechnology Law and Policy Cases and Materials" "Carolina Academic Press" " Victoria Sutton" "Texas Tech" "Texas Tech University School of Law" "Paul Whitfield Horn Professor" "Regulation" "Litigation"… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on “The New Steel? Enabling the Carbon Nanomaterials Revolution: Markets, Metrology, Safety, and Scale-up” is a workshop to be held on February 28th and March 1st, 2011, at NIST’s Gaithersburg, Maryland facility. NIST has assembled an outstanding roster of speakers from industry, academia and government to address the full spectrum of issues, including a special panel on … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on This post falls into the category of shameless self-promotion . . . Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP is pleased to announce that John Monica has recently signed a contract with Law Journal Press, a division of ALM Media, Inc. to publish his new book "State and Local Regulation of Nanotechnology" — a full length treatise surveying the … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Presenting what looks to be a very interesting line-up of top-rate speakers, the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (Pesticides, Chemical Regulation, and Right-to-Know Committee) is presenting a webinar on January 27, 2011: Nano Governance: The Current State of Federal, State, and International Regulation Here is a summary of the webinar from … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on On 01/13/2011, the Office of Science and Technology Policy published a notice in the Federal Register extending the time for filing comments for the Draft NNI Strategy for Nanotechnology Related Environmental, Health and Safety Research to 01/21/2011. The 2011 Draft Strategy is designed to replace and update the 2008 Strategy and is the product of a series … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on At the request of Linda S. Adams, California’s Secretary for Environmental Protection, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has postponed implementation of the controversial Safer Consumer Product Alternatives Regulations. The regulations, the result of legislation passed by the California State Assembly in 2008 (Chapter 559, Acts of 2008), were designed to to establish a … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on UNIDYM ANNOUNCES ALLIANCE WITH SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS Sunnyvale, CA – December 8, 2010 – Unidym, Inc., a majority owned subsidiary of Arrowhead Research Corporation (NASDAQ: ARWR), announced today that it has completed IP cooperation and license agreements with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. ("Samsung"). Under the agreements: 1. Unidym licensed to Samsung patents covering CNT materials, including … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on This article originally appeared on the National Nanomanufacturing Network’s InterNano website. It is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. Over the past few years, USEPA’s California office has levied fines against manufacturers of products incorporating nanoscale materials when the companies have made unsubstantiated claims that their products kill germs, mold, bacteria, and other household … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on This article originally appeared on the National Nanomanufacturing Network’s InterNano website. It is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. On December 6, 2010, the Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Technology released the draft "National Nanotechnology Initiative 2011 Environmental, Health, and Safety Strategy" (2011 NNI … Continue Reading