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Industrialsafetytalk: Health and Safety Legislation
News Release from: BSI British Standards
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 21 January 2008
Guide improves nano safety
A new guide published by BSI British Standards is intended to help manufacturers and users work with nanomaterials in a safe and responsible way.
A guide to the safe handling of nanomaterials has been published by BSI British Standards The guide was drawn up by the Safenano team under BSI Committee NTI/1, Nanotechnologies
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 16 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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"PD 6699-2:2007 Nanotechnologies - Part 2: Guide to safe handling and disposal of manufactured nanomaterials" provides step by step guidance through the general approach to management of risks, information needs, hazard assessment, measurement of exposure, methods of control and disposal.
The guide, which makes up one of the nine documents for nanotechnology published by BSI in 2007, is intended to help manufacturers and users work with nanomaterials in a safe and responsible way.
Safenano Director Rob Aitken, who led the team appointed to draft the guide, said "Publication of this guide provides an important step forward in the information available to manufacturers and users of nanomaterials".
"It is intended to be a pragmatic document which provides users with a practical way to deal with nanomaterial risk issues".
The guide provides practical support to the risk management process.
It includes an innovative approach to hazard classification and suggests benchmark exposure levels for four classes of nanomaterials and an encouragement to collect exposure information.
The benchmark levels are intended to provide reasonable caution levels, but should not be considered as rigorously developed workplace exposure limits.
Control approaches for various scenarios such as deliberate aerosolisation and transferring/mixing of dry materials are suggested, with the encouragement that these are supported by measurement.
"Given the current state of knowledge about nanoparticle toxicology and risk it will be some time before formal workplace exposure limits can be developed".
"Our view is that this guide and the benchmark levels suggested provides the best basis for progress at this stage" said Aitken.
'If you are developing, producing, handling, or otherwise working with engineered nanomaterials, read this guide' said Andrew Maynard, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies.
"Its value lies in down-to-earth know-how".
"This is a shop-floor manual for making decisions where the rubber hits the road".
The guide is available to download for free from the BSI site.
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