Size Matters: Defining the Term "Nanomaterials"

As nanomaterials are used in a continuously increasing range of high-tech applications and consumer products there is growing concern about their safe use and possible impact on human health and the environment. Future legislation will have to take this into account and address nanomaterials more specifically, but legislators need an unambiguous definition of "nanomaterial" in order to appropriately regulate such materials. In a Reference Report the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) noted that "No internationally harmonised definition yet exists that would fulfil the requirements for entering into legislation" and stated that a suitable definition should be "...clear and easily understandable across different fields of application, and in different industrial sectors..." The report recommended that such a definition should be based only on size, and that that legislation on nanomaterials should employ the term "particulate nanomaterial" in order to focus on nanomaterials of concern in terms of their potential impact on health or environment.JRC.DG.I.5-Nanobioscience