Nanomaterial safety drive gets underway

An international effort by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has seen countries such as Japan and the US agree to test the human health and environmental safety of nanomaterials.

The drive, run by OECD's Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials, has so far attracted ten countries in support and around $20 million (£10 million) in funding.

Over the next two years, the scheme hopes to test ten nanomaterials for physical-chemical properties as well as their environmental impact, at a cost of $2 million each.

Peter Kearns, the OECD's principal nanosafety administrator believes it is vital that countries unite on this issue and agree to share resources.

"It is very important that countries move together so that there is no disruption to the development of risk assessment information in the field of nanotechnology. Safety assessment is a real interdisciplinary issue. So pooling such resources and expertise should be an advantage to all," he said.

Nanomaterials are substances whose morphological features are smaller than a micron in one dimension or more.