STATEMENT
[October 18th, Brussels] - The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) is deeply disappointed by the European Commission’s decision released today to use a narrow definition for the term “nanomaterial”, indicating that industry lobbying has won over the Commission’s own scientific advisors [1].
EEB did however welcome the fact that a recommendation was adopted and hopes this will clear the way for the EU to actually start regulating on this.
“Definition is an important first step but does nothing to allow a robust assessment to be made about their safety, let alone take measures to control risks. If the Commission will take as long to do this as they did to develop the definition, more member states will develop their own initiatives as France already did, leading to even more uncertainty for industry and consumers” said Louise Duprez, Nanotechnology policy officer at EEB.
It is completely unclear from the Commission’s publication how the threshold was multiplied by 50 from the original 1% when scientists had in fact called for a 0.15% threshold [2].
EEB had called upon the Commission to stick to a 1% threshold of the particle number size distribution as a way to put under scrutiny, certain materials, which may exhibit nano specific hazardous properties in the larger size range [3].
Contact:
Louise Duprez, EEB Nanotechnology policy officer, louise.duprez@eeb.org, +32 (0) 2 289 13 07
Editor notes:
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REFLEXÃO:
Se vocês lembrarem eu fiz o comentário posterior exatamente sobre esse problema de se destacar uma nanopartícula apenas no limitador de 01 a 100 nm, sendo que em 101 nm não passará por avaliação de riscos e demais situações.
A União Europeia caiu no lobby das empresas e isso pode gerar problemas vindouros. Poderá gerar a situação de uma empresa produzir um nanomaterial que contenha 101 nm (nanômetros) o que acarretará não passar por certos parâmetros de investigação de risco à saúde e meio ambiente.
Cuidado, PRECAUÇÃO, REGULAÇÃO, lembremos que no Brasil estamos iniciando uma carga forte de pesquisas com nanotecnologia. Se você fosse uma empresa/empresário, produziria qual nanopartícula? Acredita que Anvisa e Inmentro conseguem investigar com celeridade e precisão no estado da arte que encontramos?
a) CIEL welcomes new EU definition of nanomaterials as a necessary step towards assuring safety
