( The U.S. Environmental Protection Agenc...)EPA to Improve Nanotechnology,Health

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its current thinking on whether a nanoscale material is a new or existing chemical substance under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

In the document, TSCA Inventory Status of Nanoscale SubstancesGeneral Approach, EPA states that it will maintain its practice of determining whether nanoscale substances qualify as new chemicals under TSCA on a case-by-case basis.

According to former EPA official and Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) senior advisor J. Clarence Davies, The agencys current practice is inadequate to deal with nanotechnology. It is essential that EPA move quickly to recognize the novel biological and ecological characteristics of nanoscale materials.

It can do this only by using the new uses provisions of TSCA, a subject not mentioned in the EPAs inventory document. With the approach outlined by EPA and because of the weaknesses in the law, the agency is not even able to identify which substances are nanomaterials, much less determine whether they pose a hazard.

Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies science advisor Andrew Maynard underlined that EPAs approach ignores the scientific research evidence to date that different nanostructures with the same molecular identity present different hazards.

Nanotechnology is a rapidly growing sector of the economy that will represent an estimated 2.6 trillion dollars in manufactured goods by 2014, or about 15 percent of global manufactured goods output.

In addition to the TSCA document, the agency issued papers for public comment pertaining to a proposed voluntary industry Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program (NMSP)an effort to encourage industry to provide the agency on a voluntary basis with scientific information about the risk management practices now used by manufacturers of existing nanomaterials.

Starting the Stewardship program will be a positive s
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