Timing, hosts and locations of (grouped) events of NanoImpactNet

NanoSafetyCluster - Compendium 2012
inhaled, enter the bloodstream and translocate to cells. Despite
such hazards, it is not possible to predict their impacts and there
are currently no exposure limits specific to NPs nor any national or
international consensus standards on hazard assessment and
measurement. In addition, there is a major debate on
nanotechnology future implications, including concerns about
effects on global economics and consumers’ acceptance.
In order to address these major concerns and considering the
project concept, the main objective of NANOMICEX project is to
reduce the potential risk upon worker’s exposure to engineered
nanoparticles through the modification of nanoparticles
properties with effective surface modifiers and the
characterization of practical and cost effective risk management
strategies in the particular operative conditions of the inks and
pigments industry.
To achieve such objectives, the engineered NPs under the scope of
the project will be studied in detail in order to identify the mean
parameters that may influence their chemical and physical
properties. The hazard of these materials will be tested using both
human and environmental models. Once characterized,
nanoparticles will be developed using different biotechnological
surface modifiers in order to obtain less hazardous and more
stable engineered nanoparticles. The methodologies used in the
formation of less risk-posing nanoparticles will be relatively simple
allowing them to be easily reproduced in a common laboratory in
order to ensure the effectiveness of the methodology in the
industry. In a second stage, levels of exposure for workers who are
exposed when handling the nanoparticles will be determined in
order to develop real exposure scenarios. These scenarios will be
studied at all stages of nanotechnology inks and pigments
production, use and disposal, considering the engineered
nanoparticles as such or as a component of complex ink-pigment
formulations. In the third stage of the project, the exposure
scenarios will be reproduced in the laboratory clean room, in order
to assess the effectiveness of the risk management measures and
engineered controls. To this end, the effectiveness of the
personnel protective equipment, ventilation, filtration and other
controls will be checked in the simulated conditions. As a result,
the studies will determinate the most effective techniques to
reduce and mitigate the hazard and exposure, and therefore
minimize the risk, focussing on safe use. Finally, in the last stage of
the Nanomicex project, the modified nanoparticles and cost
effective risk management strategies will be tested in case studies
with the aim of validating the strategies in the real operative
conditions for preparing inks, where the nanoparticles can have a
uncertain behaviour.
Si
Ti
Al
NPs Characterization
Life Cycle Impact
Release
Waste
Risk
Use
Production
Surface Modifications
Exposure Assessment – Risk Characterization
Exposure
Hazard
Evaluation of current RMM
New Modified Nanoparticles
Integrated Risk Management
Strategies
Practical & Cost effective RMM
2 Background
The ink and pigment industry all over the world is being driven by
innovation, which allows manufacturers to develop new and
innovative products for hundreds of industrial applications and
billions of people who use them every day. According to the
Ecological and Toxicological Association of Dyes and Organic
Pigments Manufacturers (ETAD), pigment applications demand
properties such as dispersibility, color strength, light and weather
fastness, migration resistance, color shade or hiding power. These
properties depend on the chemical composition of inks and
pigments and on the size and morphology of their particles.
Therefore, nanotechnology and in particular, the use of
nanoparticles in ink and pigment formulations have a great
potential for new applications, leading to products with new or
enhanced properties, and opening new market opportunities.
Consequently, many promising applications emerge nowadays,
based on the use of nanoparticles such as FexOy, TiO2, ZnO,
Quantum dots or Mixed-metal oxides at the nanoscale, which
confer a wide range of properties to the final products, covering
the most requested properties in pigment/inks applications for the
nearest future.
Along with the benefits there are also concerns that a variety of
the characteristics possessed by nanomaterials, such as small size,
high aspect ratio, shape, surface reactivity, solubility or dustiness,
relate their potential hazard and risk.
However, despite such situation, due to the extraordinary
possibilities derived from the application of nanotechnologies in
different industrial sectors, the use of engineered nanoparticles is
steadily increasing and the number of workers dealing with
nanoparticles is also on the rise. For example, the organic pigment
industry, in which nano-additives are used, employs more than
100,000 staff and achieve sales of 10 billion Euros. Similarly, the
production of nano-structured inks represents both the largest and
faster-growing market for advanced ink formulations.
On the other hand, significant regulatory concerns from the
European Commission have arisen about unforeseen risks likely to
arise from nanoparticles. In this sense, the communication from
the commission to European parliament (SEC 2008, 2036) provides
a description of elements of selected EU legislation that seems
most relevant and likely to apply to nanotechnologies and
nanomaterials. At the moment, the most important piece of
legislation in the area of health and safety at work is the
Framework Directive 89/391/EEC "on the introduction of measures
to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers",
which fully applies to risks associated with nanoparticles. This
Directive places a number of obligations on employers to take
measures necessary for the safety and health protection of
workers, considering also the risk mitigation as a recommendation
when it is not possible to eliminate the risks. At the same time, the
REACH regulation, which is the main legal instrument to ensure
the safety use of chemicals in the European market, establishes the
need to ensure the safety of substances, such and those included
into mixtures (e.g. inks). Even if there is no specific regulation to
nanomaterials, REACH regulation applies to all substances and
mixtures supplied in the European Union, whatever size, shape or
physical state. Nonetheless, in the absence of specific regulations,
the precautionary principle should be first applied.
142 Compendium of Projects in the European NanoSafety Cluster