The State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) in Switzerland has published guidelines for safety data sheets (SDS) of synthetic nanomaterials. According to SECO, the guidelines aim to:

• demonstrate which information is necessary to ensure the safe handling of nano-objects and of products which contain nano-objects.
• offer assistance on how the relevant information can be identified and in which form and which place they are to be listed in the SDS.
• contribute to making employees of companies which produce or process synthetic nano-objects aware of the particular properties of these materials. Where necessary, companies should request the relevant information from their suppliers.

Source and full article: SafeNano

The guidelines may be downloaded here

 The increasing use of nanosilver as an antimicrobial in consumer products has raised concerns both in Europe and the US due to its potential adverse effects in the environment.

Researchers at Arizona State University have recently published a study in the Journal of Environmental Quality following the testing of several types of consumer products utilising nanoparticulate silver and their potential to release nanosilver to the air, water or soil.

The researchers assessed a shirt, a medical mask and cloth, toothpaste, shampoo, detergent, a towel, a toy teddy bear, and two humidifiers for their silver content. The products were then washed in tap water to determine the potential release of silver into aqueous environmental matrices. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to confirm the presence of nanoparticle silver in most products as well as in the wash water samples.

The paper also presents methodologies that can be used to quantify and characterize silver and other nanomaterials in consumer products, which can then be used to estimate real-world human and environmental exposure levels. 

Source: SafeNano

View abstract

The Australian National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme (NICNAS) is introducing new procedures for the notification and assessment of industrial nanomaterials that falls under the following working definition of "industrial nanomaterial":

"... industrial materials intentionally produced, manufactured or engineered to have unique properties or specific composition at the nanoscale, that is a size range typically between 1 nm and 100 nm, and is either a nano-object (i.e. that is confined in one, two, or three dimensions at the nanoscale) or is nanostructured (i.e. having an internal or surface structure at the nanoscale)".

These new procedures are components of the overall NICNAS strategy for regulating industrial nanomaterials and further details may be found on pages 14 - 16 of this document .