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Industrialsafetytalk: Health and Safety Legislation
News Release from: BSI British Standards
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 29 February 2008
Nanotech guide provides safety boost
BSI British Standards has drawn together industry expertise to create common definitions for nano-related products and guidance on labelling, safe handling and materials specification.
BSI British Standards has published nine documents for nanotechnology terminology and guidance for UK industry which will support worker, public and environmental safety and underpin commercialisation and procurement The worldwide market for nanotechnology-enabled products is expected to exceed US $1 trillion a year by 2015 and nanotechnologies are already used in medicine, 'green technology' and in over 500 consumer products as varied as laptops, sunscreen, tennis rackets and socks
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 16 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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To support this rapidly expanding technology and to enable its safe application, BSI British Standards has drawn together industry expertise to create common definitions for nano-related products and guidance on labelling, safe handling and materials specification.
PAS 130 is a voluntary guide to the labelling of products containing manufactured nanoparticles.
This will help to ensure that all users are aware of the nanoparticle content of products they are purchasing, selecting or handling, reducing confusion among the public faced with a new technology.
Further reading
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The deadline for complying with the Disability Discrimination Act is 1 October 2004, but BSI has plenty of publications and software tools that can ease the route to compliance.
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BSI has revised its British Standard for occupational health and safety management - BS 8800:2004 - to assist small to medium-sized enterprises with managing their risks.
PD 6699-1 offers good practice guidance on specifying nanomaterials, which ensures that a product behaves in an expected and reproducible way.
PD 6699-2 offers practical advice for those working in this field on the safe everyday handling and disposal of nanomaterials.
Six terminologies (PAS 131-136) complete this suite of documents and help promote common understanding and consistent usage of the various terms associated with nanotechnologies.
Mike Low, Director of BSI British Standards, said, "Standardisation has a key part to play in all innovative technologies and nanotechnology is no exception".
"The industry's knowledge of nanomaterials is still at a relatively early stage and it is therefore crucial that it has best practice guidance available to it".
"BSI has brought together the best available expertise to create these nine nanotechnology documents".
"This project is part of BSI's overall initiative to support the innovation agenda of UK government and these new documents were developed in partnership with the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills".
Peter Hatto, Chair of the UK National Committee on Nanotechnologies, said, "These nine new documents continue the UK's innovative work to develop standards for this important new field, which started with the publication of PAS 71 - Vocabulary for Nanoparticles.
The publications mark the beginning of an exciting work programme for 2008 and beyond".
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