Nanosilver, Nanocellulose, Graphene, and Nanoclays
NIOSH’s early focus was on CNTs and nanoscale titanium dioxide. NIOSH is expanding the target of it health and exposure research to include other relatively high volume commercial nanomaterials, including nanoscale silver, graphene, and nanocellulose. NIOSH will complete a field assessment of current workplace exposure to these materials, evaluate the pulmonary and systemic effects of exposure, and by 2016, it expects to issue risk-based, recommended occupational exposure limits for these materials and perhaps others (e.g., carbon black, nanoscale silica, nanoceramics, nanoclays, and nanoscale catalysts). Looking ahead, NIOSH will complete market surveillance to identity the next generation of nanomaterials entering widespread commercial use to prioritize for future testing and recommendations.
New Guides for Business
NIOSH published a safe handling guide for nanomaterials in laboratories in 2012, and earlier this year published a compendium of effective ultrafine particle control technologies used in other industries that should be effective with nanomaterials. Later this year, NIOSH will issue a nanomaterial handling guide targeted specifically at small businesses that use or manufacture nanomaterials. Next year, NIOSH plans to update its seminal general guidance on safe handling of nanomaterials in the workplace, publish updated nanomaterial exposure measurement methods, publish the results of its field assessments of nanomaterial exposure in particular industries, and update its 2009 guidance for nanomaterial worker medical surveillance.
Practical Research to See What Works
NIOSH is doing other practical research useful to nanomaterial workers and their employers. This includes assessing the effectiveness of commercially available engineering controls (e.g., hoods) in laboratories; developing standardized test methods for airborne nanomaterials; evaluating the effectiveness of different kinds of protective clothing as a barrier to nanoscale particles; evaluating the fire, explosion an electromagnetic hazard of engineered nanomaterials and the sufficiency of existing DOT and NFPA guidance for managing hazardous dusts; and evaluating the effectiveness of respirators with nanomaterials in occupational settings.
Companies working with nanomaterials and their investors recognize the importance of managing the environmental, safety and health aspects of these materials to the safety of their workers and customers, market acceptance of their products, and the long term successes of their businesses. The current challenge is determining what protective measures are effective and appropriate in particular circumstances in the absence of consensus on hazards, standard exposure measurement test methods, or authoritative occupational exposure standards. As research on these questions continues – at NIOSH and at hundreds of other private and public institutions around the world – NIOSH’s program of work is producing a great deal of practical information and guidance that employers can use today based on what is already known. At the same time, results of studies of particular individual nanomaterials may have favorable or unfavorable effects on market acceptance. Companies working with materials under study need to be aware of that work as it emerges and to be ready to assess its relevance to their operations.
