Government, Industry, Advocacy Groups Work on Carbon Nanotube Release Measures

Summary posted by Meridian on 1/24/2012

Source: Bloomberg BNA Daily Environment Report (23 Jan 2012)

Author(s): Pat Rizzuto

A coalition comprised of government officials, chemical manufacturers and representatives of labor and consumer advocacy groups are working together to come up with an agreement on ways to measure whether multiwalled carbon nanotubes are released from products, potentially exposing workers, consumers or the environment. The NanoRelease project is managed by the ILSI Research Foundation Center for Risk Science Innovation and Application (RSIA) and receives funding and technical support from U.S. and Canadian agencies, as well as industry associations. The answer to the group’s charge could affect regulatory oversight, risk estimates, worker protections, and the design of multiwalled carbon nanotubes, as well as the materials that contain them. Some research has suggested that multiwalled carbon nanotubes may behave like asbestos fibers if inhaled, yet the promising new material has many potential applications. Cathy Fehrenbacher, chief of the exposure assessment branch within the U.S. Environmental Protections Agency's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics, said, “we are very interested in the development of methods to assist us in understanding the potential for release and exposure.” Darrell Boverhof, a toxicologist with the Dow Chemical Co., and a co-chair of the group’s steering committee, said chemical manufacturers are responsible for the safety of their products, and that manufacturers hope this process will help confer confidence in the safety tests they conduct. Laboratory tests of different materials are expected to begin in 2013.

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