Monthly Archives: October 2021

An unprecedented collaborative effort of members of the three projects is culminating in the final stages of production of the Blueprint for the Nanotechnology Risk Governance Council.

This Blueprint is a planning document that presents a possible design and role for a new organisation that would be tasked with governing risks from nano-based products, a Nanotechnology Risk Governance Council (NRGC). It has been developed in a co-creation approach with key stakeholders and represents the current view of how such a council could be organised.

What can be the added value of a Nanotechnology Risk Governance Council (NRGC)? What challenges and opportunities should it address? What should its mission be and what goals should it pursue? What activities should it conduct, and how should the Council be organised? The answers to these questions form the building blocks of this document, which describes the goals that the Council could aim at, and why, and the activities and services it could offer.

Its main purpose is to provide a framework to test elements of the council design and further engage with key stakeholders in regulation, industry, and NGOs to collect their feedback as possible members of the NRGC. This process will be used to refine the design of the NRGC prior to a possible launch in 2022.

The projects are now moving to (a) testing it, (b) refining it, (c) identifying possible members, (d) establishing conditions for its sustainability, (e) launching it, and, finally, (f) accompanying it through the first months of activities.

Any representative from regulation, industry, and NGOs who are interested in contributing to the NRGC is invited to contact us and join the stakeholder database here, indicating specific interest in the NRGC.

Acknowledgments:

Marie-Valentine Florin

Authors: NMBP-13 Council Task Force: Rob Aitken, Dalila Antunes, Arto Säämänen, Marie-Valentine Florin, Monique Groenewold, Panagiotis Isigonis, Andrea Porcari, Janeck Scott-Fordsmand, Tommaso Serchi.

From Basic Science to Risk Governance

This year the Venice Nanosafety Training School celebrated its 10th anniversary in a one-of-a-kind, large-scale event organised by the NMBP-13 projects in collaboration with four other EC-funded H2020 projects: Biorima, Gracious, NanoInformaTIX, and PATROLS.

The event, which took place from June 21st –25th, featured keynote speeches, and a variety of hands-on sessions aimed to transfer state-of-the-art knowledge on a range of topics from key experts to the new generation of nano-environmental, health and safety, and biomedicine professionals, using interprofessional education. Finally, networking activities allowed for plenty of time and opportunities to expand networks and foster academic exchange.

Risk Governance—Session 8

Partners from the 3 NMBP-13 projects built a multi-focused Risk Governance session on the question “Risk assessment with a social dimension: how does risk governance differ from risk assessment or management?”

Starting with an introduction to the process of risk governance, discussions examined how data support decision-making, what data are needed, and what researchers can do in order to provide such data. This also covered FAIR databases and quality assurance, defined by the Knowledge Readiness Level (KaRL).

The session culminated by exploring different stakeholder views, focusing on the specific case of Titanium Dioxide E171 safety, and how socioeconomic aspects can be included in the risk governance process to warrant inclusiveness for different values into the risk/benefit estimation.

The Risk Governance session is available here

Watch videos of the sessions: 

NanoSafety Cluster YouTube channel

Acknowledgments:

Martin Himly, Sabine Hofer and Nobert Hofstaetter (University of Salzburg), Dmitri Ciornii (BAM) and Daan Schuurbiers (DPF)

Risks of nanomaterials and nanotechnology

How do you feel about nanotechnology? How much do you know about nanoproducts?

We aim to understand people’s attitudes towards nanotechnology and nanoproducts and their risks in this survey developed by the three NMBP-13 projects, Gov4Nano, NANORIGO, and RiskGONE.

The answers provided in this survey are completely anonymous and will only be used for the purpose described above. The survey is available in 12 European languages.

Feel free to share it with your contacts and friends!

Click here to see the survey: https://survey.nilu.no/index.php/538883

Children’s Privilege in COVID-19: The Protective Role of the Juvenile Lung Morphometry and Ventilatory Pattern on Airborne SARS-CoV-2 Transmission to Respiratory Epithelial Barriers and Disease Severity

NANORIGO partner Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS) is proud to announce the publication of a second study concerning COVID-19. Here they investigated SARS-CoV-2 virion inoculation in the lung of different age groups, using juvenile lung morphometry data of children between the age of three years and eight years. The SARS-CoV-2 inoculation potential of both age groups was compared with a young adult. Evidence was found that children are intrinsically protected to SARS-CoV-2 transmission by virion-laden aerosols when compared to the young adult, an important finding in the context of the ongoing politically laden discussion of children’s role in SARS-CoV-2 transmission in kindergartens and primary schools.

In this study methods and tools for Nano Risk Governance were applied. These form part of NANORIGO’s tool collection, hence repurposing NANORIGO Risk Governance Tools (MPPD) in the context of the emerging public health thread COVID-19.

Paper: https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9101414

Raw data: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5543676 .

This work was supported by the Allergy-Cancer-BioNano (ACBN) Research Center of the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (PLUS) and in parts by the EU H2020 projects NanoRigo and NanoCommons (grant numbers 814530 and 731032, respectively).

BB creams, concealers, mascaras

Be cautious, especially during pregnancy

After previous reports on baby cosmetics and sunscreens for children, Wecf France today reveals the results of a survey of cosmetic products. We made an expert study of the labels 47 make-up products: 17 BB creams, 15 concealers and 15 mascaras, whose use has not decreased during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many women use make-up products and cosmetics daily, including during or when envisaging pregnancy. They are part of everyday consumer products which may contribute to the exposure of pregnant women and the unborn child to chemicals of concern for human health, such as potential endocrine disruptors.

Our survey

In May 2021, we selected and purchased 47 cosmetic products, sold in supermarkets, perfume stores, drug stores, and organic shops. We screened the lists of ingredients on the packaging or available online, to list and identify ingredients of concern based on the most recent scientific literature: endocrine disruptors, nanoparticles, allergens, substances hazardous for ecosystems, etc.

Main results of our survey

• We identified 37 substances of concern in the 47 products of our survey. Among these 37 substances, we classified 13 as very high concern (RED), 9 as of high concern (ORANGE) and 15 as of moderate concern (YELLOW). 7 are endocrine disruptors of very high concern.
• BB creams are the product category containing the highest number of substances of concern. Of the 17 BB creams of our survey, 10 contain at least 4 substances of very high concern. 3 BB creams contain a minimum of 12 substances of concern.
• 3 of the 15 concealers of our survey contain at least 4 substances of very high concern.
• Mascaras are the category with the lowest number of substances of concern: none contains more than 3 substances of very high concern.
• 11 products of our survey contain no plastic ingredients, 8 of them are organic products.
• Cosmetic products with organic labels are globally of better quality, with the main concerns being the use of titanium dioxide (in BB creams) and fragrance allergens of moderate concern.

Our main demands

• Ban ingredients which we classified of very high concern from cosmetics, including the endocrine disruptors benzyl salicylate, BHT, butylphenyl methylpropional, ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate, ethylparaben, methylparaben and octocrylene.
• Establish a pictogram, similar to the one displayed on alcohol, to warn pregnant women of the presence in cosmetics of ingredients suspected of being of concern for human health, in particular endocrine disruptors.
• Strengthen research work of the French risk assessment agencies ANSM and ANSES to identify the risks linked to the use of cosmetics containing ingredients of concern, especially for pregnant women.
• Ensure that all ingredients listed on cosmetic products are readable and understandable for consumers.

For more information download the report (in French): https://wecf-france.org/rapport-cosmetiques-trop-de-substances-problematiques/

Press contacts

Anja Härtwig, Communication Officer: +33 (0)4 50 83 48 10, anja.hartwig@wecf.org

Elisabeth Ruffinengo, Advocacy Manager: +33 (0)6 74 77 77 00, elisabeth.ruffinengo@wecf.org