U.S., Swiss and Norwegian researchers have analyzed an array of consumer products sold in the United States to determine how much titanium dioxide they contained by weight in a first-ever human exposure analysis and concluded that food sources likely account for most of the titanium nanoparticles released into the environment. Alex Weir, et al., “Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles in Food and Personal Care Products,” Environmental Science & Technology, February 8, 2012. Noting that the substance is a common additive, the study showed that foods with the highest content of titanium dioxide (up to 360 mg per serving) are candies, sweets and chewing gum, and that personal care products, such as toothpaste and select sunscreens, can contain up to 10 percent titanium by weight. The research also showed that approximately 36 percent of the particles are nano-sized. The researchers conclude that children have the highest exposures due to their consumption of sweets and…
Tag Archives nanotechnology
A National Academies National Research Council panel has issued a report acknowledging the progress made by the National Nanotechnology Initiative in researching the environmental and potential health effects of engineered nanomaterials (ENM), but criticizing an overall failure to link research with strategies to prevent and manage risks. Headed by Jonathan Samet, who teaches at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and has long researched, written about and crusaded against tobacco smoke and the industry, the panel calls for the development of a strategic research plan “independent of any one stakeholder group, [with] human and environmental health as its primary focus.” The report advocates that four research categories be addressed within five years: “identify and quantify the nanomaterials being released and the populations and environments being exposed”; “understand processes that affect both potential hazards and exposure”; “examine nanomaterial interactions in complex systems ranging from subcellular to ecosystems”; and…
University of Turin Law Professor Margherita Poto explores the food safety laws in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong to set the stage for discussing how their regulatory systems may be sufficiently advanced to address the potential challenges posed by the use of nanotechnology in the food sciences. Her article appears in a special edition of the European Journal of Law & Technology devoted to nanotechnology issues. According to Poto, existing risk analysis rules, registration and traceability requirements and premarket approval should adequately ensure the safety of “nano-foods.” She contends, “Mainland China and Hong Kong are seriously committed to strengthen their regulatory framework in order to protect consumers from unsafe food and this commitment can involve the field of nano-foods, as an integrant part of the novel foods regulation. The regulatory framework may allow PRC, as well as Western countries, to reach…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Office of Inspector General (IG) has issued a report critical of how effectively the agency “is managing the human health and environmental risks of nanomaterials.” Noting that EPA has the statutory authority to regulate nanomaterials, the IG found that it “currently lacks the environmental and human health exposure and toxicological data to do so effectively.” The IG also found that lack of coordination between program offices, EPA’s failure to communicate with stakeholders on nanomaterial risk issues and limitations in existing statutes that regulate chemicals “present significant barriers to effective nanomaterial management when combined with existing resource challenges.” The agency has responded to the report by agreeing with the IG’s recommendation to “develop a process to assure effective dissemination and coordination of nanomaterial information across relevant program offices” and has established a corrective action plan with milestone dates.
The nonprofit group As You Sow has issued a report calling on the food industry to evaluate the safety of nanomaterials used in food packaging. Titled “Sourcing Framework for Food and Food Packaging Products Containing Nanomaterials,” the report claims that better communication is needed between food companies and their suppliers to “protect themselves from financial and reputation risk.” According to the report, toxicity risks related to “nanofoods, nano food packaging and nano agrochemicals” are “very poorly understood” because of lack of federal regulations. To stay ahead of regulations, the report calls on the food industry to (i) “[f]ind out if your company has nanomaterials in its products and supply chain, (ii) “[p]ut a policy in place that suppliers must disclose if their products contain or were manufactured with the use of nanomaterials,” (iii) require “that their supply chain disclose any use of nanomaterials and all related safety testing data and safety…
Lehigh University researchers studying U.S. and U.K. nanotechnology news coverage from 2000 to 2009 have found relatively few articles about “nanotechnology health, environmental, and societal risks.” Sharon Friedman & Brenda Egolf, “A Longitudinal Study of Newspaper and Wire Service Coverage of Nanotechnology Risks,” Risk Analysis, November 2011. Their article appeared in an issue devoted to nanotechnology risks, communications and labeling. According to Friedman and Egolf, most of the coverage from 29 newspapers and two wire services “focused on news events” and any discussion of risks or scientific uncertainties “was counterbalanced by many more articles extolling nanotechnology’s benefits.” The authors conclude that with the general public’s minimal knowledge about nanotechnology, “this type of coverage could create public distrust of nanotechnology applications should a dangerous event occur.”
A recent article published in Nature Nanotechnology examines how governments, scientists and food companies can better anticipate the public reaction to nanofoods based on lessons learned from the commercialization of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Timothy V. Duncan, “The communication challenges presented by nanofoods,” Nature Nanotechnology, October 2011. Authored by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) research chemist Timothy Duncan, the article argues that individual receptiveness to nanotechnology applications depend, not just on scientific evidence, but on myriad factors such as “cultural worldview, religiosity, governance philosophy, knowledge and familiarity level, trust (in government, scientists or industry), emotion, age, gender, race/ethnicity, education, general knowledge of/attitude towards science, and awareness of previous technology-based controversies.” In particular, Duncan warns that the failure of governments and industry to account for these factors in the past has left consumers even more wary of processes like genetic engineering which are seen, however erroneously, as “tampering with nature.” “Attitudes…
The European Commission (EC) has adopted a recommendation defining “nanomaterials” as materials “whose main constituents have a dimension of between 1 and 100 billionth of a meter.” According to an October 18, 2011, press release, this definition considers only “the size of the constituent particles of a material, rather than hazard or risk.” As such, it describes nanomaterials as “a natural, incidental or manufactured material containing particles, in an unbound state or as an aggregate or as an agglomerate and where, for 50% or more of the particles in the number size distribution, one or more external dimensions is in the size range 1 nm – 100 nm.” The definition apparently relies on input from the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), whose draft recommendations were covered in Issue 355 of this Update. The EC hopes that the adopted version…
U.S. Senators Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) have introduced a bill (S. 1662) that focuses on the potential risks of products containing nanomaterials. The Nanotechnology Regulatory Science Act of 2011 would establish a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) program to conduct the scientific research needed to evaluate the health and safety of common nanotech products and develop safety practices for companies using the technology. The measure would authorize $48 million for the program over three years starting in fiscal year 2013; the lawmakers said the FDA laboratories and research facilities suited to conduct the studies are located in their states. The senators claim that more than 800 commercial uses of nanotechnology are currently known and more than 1,300 consumer nanotechnology products, including cell phones, MP3 players and food packaging, are available on the market. The National Science Foundation estimated in 2010 that new nanotechnology-based products would create 2…
A group known as “Individualities Tending Toward Savagery” (ITS) has reportedly claimed responsibility for injuring two Mexican nanotechnology researchers with a parcel bomb, putting scientists around the world on alert. According to an August 21, 2011, Chronicle of Higher Education article, the group has a manifesto that cites Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, as an inspiration and “has been linked to attacks in France, Spain, and Chile, and to a bomb sent earlier this year to a scientist at another Mexican university who specializes in nanotech.” An analyst quoted by the Chronicle also warned that the threats “show signs of someone well-educated who could be affiliated with a college.” The latest attempt apparently targeted the director of a technology-transfer center at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, while an April 2011 bomb was intended for the nanotechnology department at the Polytechnic University of the Valley of Mexico. In addition,…
