EPA to regulate Nanomaterials

Last week, an EPA administrator told GlobalChem attendees that EPA may soon decide to regulate nanomaterials. According to the official, this rulemaking would be in reaction to a lack of industry data contributions in the voluntary Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program.

In a report released in January, EPA suggested it was considering ways to regulate nanomaterials. At that time, 29 companies or groups had submitted information to the program and seven more had pledged to submit.

EPA said April 7 that the data received from these companies was not robust enough for the agency to make any general conclusions about the hazards of nanoscale materials.

Regulatory options available to EPA include using the authority provided under Section 8 of TSCA to require companies to provide information they already have and under Section 4 of TSCA to mandate new testing, or a Significant New Use Rule to generate new information.