Today (18 October ) the European Commission released its recommendation for a regulatory definition for nanomaterials.  Responding to the recommendation the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) questions the practicality of the definition and expressed concern that it would be difficult to integrate into existing legislation.Commenting at a meeting in Brussels Dr Anne-Gaelle Collot, Head of Environment at the CIA said “the UK is leading the way in nanomaterial innovation to meet challenges such as climate change, water scarcity and improving health, so we support the need for a definition of the term “nanomaterial” to enable consistency of approach for regulators and industry.   We are concerned that we lack the standardised measurement techniques which will be important for establishing the legal certainty that particular substances are or are not nanomaterials and that the proposed definition will add unnecessary burden for companies, leading to added costs and less efficient use of resources. 

The global chemical industry, organised under the International Chemicals Industry Association (ICCA), has worked and agreed on internationally harmonised scientific elements of a nanomaterial definition, outlining requirements for a workable definition. The industry agrees with the Commission recommendation that the definition should be based on the size of particles within substances and not based on the on the hazardous properties of  a substance its perceived  risk.   There must also be an appropriate cut-off criterion and choice of metric to allow for the use of globally standardised measurement. The chemical industry strongly advocates using weight concentration rather than particle number distribution to determine the cut-off criterion for nanomaterials.

Collot added  “the CIA and its members are committed to making sure that  the manufacture and use of nanomaterials is done safely and environmentally sustainably.  Businesses using nanomaterials are working closely with regulators to ensure that they operate best practice procedures.”