By Porter Wright on The new 2011 edition of Nanotechnology Law published by West/Thomson/Reuters is now out. I update the book every year and the new edition has lots of new stuff. They make excellent Christmas and Birthday gifts, and are a general cure for insomnia. All proceeds go to my underprivileged daughters’ college fund. Everyone should have one … 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 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 This article originally appeared on the National Nanomanufacturing Network’s InterNano website. It is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. In its ongoing efforts to guard against potential unintended environmental, health, or safety injuries related to possible exposure to certain nanoscale materials, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to issue three new proposed nano-specific … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Following California’s lead, Wisconsin’s legislature recently formed a special committee to study the potential regulation of nanomaterials from an environmental, health, and safety perspective. Our readers will be interested in the committee’s membership and focus: Special Committee on Nanotechnology Chair: Rep. Chuck Benedict Vice Chair: Sen. Mark Miller Legislative Council Staff: Mary Matthias, Pam Shannon, and Larry … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Inside EPA reports today that a "senior policy adviser for EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs, said EPA would issue in June a long-awaited response to a 2008 activist petition asking the agency to regulate nanoscale silver under FIFRA." The article also mentions that EPA intends to define nanoscale ingredients for FIFRA purposes as "an ingredient … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Just a quick plug for our new NanoSafety Consortium for Carbon which was recently launched to address potential EHS issues concerning its members’ products. You can learn more about the consortium at: www.nanosafetyconsortium.com.… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on This article was written by John C. Monica, Jr. and Dr. Diana Bowman and originally appeared on the National Nanomanufacturing Network’s InterNano website earlier today. It is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. Dr. Bowman is a Senior Research Fellow in the School for Population Health at the University of Melbourne and a Visiting … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on This article was contributed by Dr. Rosalinda Volpe, Executive Director, Silver Nanotechnology Working Group (SNWG) and originally appeared on the National Nanomanufacturing Network’s InterNano website earlier today. It is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. On November 3 – 6, 2009 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) meeting … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Nanotechnology Law & Business just published our new article on the EPA’s recent treatment of nanoscale materials under the Toxic Substances Control Act. An abstract for the article is below and you can find a copy of the article itself here. Abstract: This article provides a summary of recent (2008-2009) regulatory efforts by the U.S. … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on By now, I think that most readers of this blog have either read "Exposure to Nanoparticles is Related to Pleural Effusion, Pulmonary Fibrosis, and Granuloma" by Yuguo Song, Xue Li, and Xuqin Du, recently published in the European Respiratory Journal or any of the news articles based on it, such as this one from Reuters. The paper … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Here is the Summer 2009 edition of Nanotechnology Law Report. The newsletter contains the below-listed articles (and more): EPA Issues Significant New Use Rules for Carbon Nanotubes Are Nanoparticles Released by Cutting or Compounding Nano-Composites? Annual Nano TiO2 Production Estimated at 44,000 Metric Tons Are Nano Consumer Products Headed Underground? Oversight of Next Generation Nanotechnology … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on How to regulate nanomaterials, nanotechnologies, and nanoindustries has become and will continue to be for the foreseeable future a major focus of US and European regulatory agencies, legislatures on local and national levels and of NGOs. This Fall in London, from 10-11 September, US and European regulators and researchers from NGOs such as the Woodrow Wilson … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on In a recent speech to the IFT International Nanoscience Conference, Dr. Annette McCarthy of the FDA, is quoted as saying "We believe that the regulatory authority is sufficient to address nanotechnology. But there are further questions we need to address". J. Clarence Davies, currently with the Woodrow Wilson International Center project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, might … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on "How have Canada and other jurisdictions reacted to the recent emergence of nanotechnology-based products in the marketplace (and what is the current state of affairs)?" That was the question that the Carlton University Regulatory Governance Initiative posed. To answer it, Jennifer Pelley and Marc Saner produced "International Approaches to the Regulatory Governance of Nanotechnology", which … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on It’s amazing how items accumulate in an in-box when you’ve been out of town. Such is the case here. Several articles and other items of interest have come to my attention, but posting them here has been difficult lately. With that, here are some regulatory items that may be of interest to readers:… Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Steffen Foss Hansen is a Ph.D. candidate at the Technical University of Denmark’s Department of Environmental Engineering. Here is a link to his well-written Ph.D. thesis — "Regulation and Risk Assessment of Nanomaterials — Too Little, Too Late?" Dr. Hansen’s thesis investigates whether existing environmental, health, and safety regulations and risk assessment techniques are adequate for nanotechnology … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Updating yesterday’s information that Canada anticipates enacting national regulation concerning the reporting and tracking of nanomaterials, there is some additional confirmation. CBC News is similarly reporting that Environment Canada anticipates enacting a national reporting regulation next month. While Environment Canada is not commenting directly on the news, CBC states, "Department officials said the plan is to … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, via Nanowerk, is reporting that Canada will announce, in February, that it will release a national regulation aimed at requiring the submission of the "use of engineered nanomaterials" by manufacturers and users. "The information gathered under the requirement will be used to evaluate the risks of engineered nanomaterials and will help … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Earlier today, the EPA published an interim status report regarding its Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program. A final report is expected in early 2010. Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program, Interim Report, January 2009, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics. At the outset, EPA notes that "[t]he findings and conclusions [of the] report should not … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Today, US EPA issued a Federal Register notice stating the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) registration requirements are "potentially applicable to carbon nanotubes." EPA confirmed its position the CNTs are "chemical substances distinct from graphite or other allotropes of carbon listed on the TSCA inventory." The bottom line is stated succinctly by EPA: "Many CNTs may therefore … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The following was provided by Luca Escoffier, a PhD student at Queen Mary, University of London a Transatlantic Technology Law Forum (TTLF) fellow at Standford writing his dissertation on patenting medical nanotechnology inventions, and currently a visiting fellow at the University of Washington. He is also the author of the Nanomedicine and IP Blog, and watches European … Continue Reading
