Government Initiatives and Programs

Public Workshop on U.S. EPA and DTSC Efforts Related to Nanomaterials

September 22, 2010 at the U.S. EPA Region 9 office in San Francisco, California.  The workshop will focus on the results of the carbon nanotube information call-in, future activities by DTSC on nanomaterial call-ins, and U.S. EPA efforts related to carbon nanotubes and future regulatory plans for nanomaterials.

Additional information on this workshop will be posted at: http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/TechnologyDevelopment/Nanotechnology/UpcomingSymposium.cfm 

Register at: http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/TechnologyDevelopment/Nanotechnology/nanotech_6_registration.cfm 

If you have any questions,  please contact Hamid Saebfar at (717) 818-6530 or Suzanne Davis at (916) 327-4206 for assistance.

Control of Nanoscale Materials under the Toxic Substances Control Act

May 19, 2010

To Whom It May Concern:

The purpose of this post is to identify laboratories with capacity for testing nanomaterial endpoints. We, Eastern Research Group, Inc., (ERG) are supporting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) development of information to help characterize the state of the industry for testing and characterizing nanoscale materials. More information on EPA activities related to these materials can be found at EPA’s website www.epa.gov/oppt/nano.

As part of this activity, EPA has tasked ERG with identifying laboratories that can perform the types of testing that have been identified to help characterize nanomaterials by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, an intergovernmental organization with representatives from 30 industrialized countries.  We are specifically interested in information from laboratories that may have capacity for testing nanomaterials including carbon nanotubes, clays, and alumina in the following general areas:

-Physical-chemical properties and material characterization;
-Environmental fate;
-Environmental toxicology; and
-Mammalian toxicology.

Additional information pertaining to the specific testing recommended by OECD can be found in, Guidance Manual For The Testing Of Manufactured Nanomaterials (July 9, 2009).

Please forward responses to:

Edward Viveiros
edward.viveiros@erg.com
(703) 633-1605
14555 Avion Pkwy, Ste. 200
Chantilly, VA 20151

If possible, please indicate which type of testing services from the list above that the laboratory is capable of providing. If the laboratory you are familiar with only specializes in specific types of nanomaterial testing (e.g., nanoclays, carbon nanotubes, nano aluminum oxide), please indicate that as well.

The EPA Economist overseeing this effort is Lynne Blake-Hedges (Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics). EPA plans to share the list of laboratories with expertise in nanomaterials testing with companies that may undertake this type of testing in the near future. Thank you for your time!

More Government Initiatives

National Nanotechnology Initiative

Dr. Mihail Roco's presentation titled "National Nanotechnology Initiative Overview" from the 3rd Integrated Nanosystems Conference in Pasadena, California, held on September 22nd, 2004. (PDF)

Many U.S. Government agencies are involved in nanotechnological inititiatives, including the following:

International Initiatives: