Abstract
Nanotechnologies have reached maturity and market penetration that require nano-specific changes in legislation and harmonization among legislation domains, such as the amendments to REACH for nanomaterials (NMs) which came into force in 2020. Thus, an assessment of the components and regulatory boundaries of NMs risk governance is timely, alongside related methods and tools, as part of the global efforts to optimise nanosafety and integrate it into product design processes, via Safe(r)-by-Design (SbD) concepts. This paper provides an overview of the state-of-the-art regarding risk governance of NMs and lays out the theoretical basis for the development and implementation of an effective, trustworthy and transparent risk governance framework for NMs. The proposed framework enables continuous integration of the evolving state of the science, leverages best practice from contiguous disciplines and facilitates responsive re-thinking of nanosafety governance to meet future needs. To achieve and operationalise such framework, a science-based Risk Governance Council (RGC) for NMs is being developed. The framework will provide a toolkit for independent NMs' risk governance and integrates needs and views of stakeholders. An extension of this framework to relevant advanced materials and emerging technologies is also envisaged, in view of future foundations of risk research in Europe and globally.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 2003303 |
Journal | Small |
Volume | 16 |
Issue number | 36 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 23 Jul 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 814425 (RiskGONE) and No 814572 (NanoSolveIT).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords
- nanomaterials
- nanosafety
- regulation
- risk governance council
- risk governance framework
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Biotechnology
- Biomaterials
- General Chemistry
- General Materials Science