Current legislation that governs the safety classification of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) in Europe is complex.
Each ENM has to be treated as a separate chemical and be individually tested to assess its safety characteristics.
This means developing new materials using different nanoparticles is currently both time-consuming and expensive.
If you take an element and add something to it, it changes its chemical composition and it becomes a ‘new’ material.
In the existing legislative framework, each time a small modification is made to a nanomaterial it becomes a new material, and each new material needs testing, which is time-consuming and costly.
Consequently, there is a real need for ways to reduce the amount of individual testing of ENM that is currently occurring, as this will help to reduce the cost of developing ENM-based products and speed up innovation.
The main innovation of the NANOSOLUTIONS project will be the development of the engineered nanomaterial (ENM) safety classifier. This novel hazard profiling principle will provide a basis for understanding and defining the toxic potential of all types of ENM.
It will be used by companies that manufacture ENM and by a regulatory community to manage, reduce uncertainty, and clarify the current debate, since it will provide the potential to effectively “de-classify” many types of ENM in many applications in terms of safety risks.