Towards a nanospecific approach for risk assessment

Area of Science:

• Environmental Science
• Toxicology
• Materials Science

Background:

• The FP7 NANoREG project aims to develop novel testing strategies for nanomaterials.
• Existing methods struggle with the complexity of nanomaterial impacts on health and environment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a new integrated strategy for nanomaterial risk assessment.
• To guide users in prioritizing nanomaterial applications with potential high human health risks.

Main Methods:

• Integration and expansion of (Quantitative) Structure Activity Relationships ((Q)SARs), grouping, and read-across approaches.
• Identification of nanospecific properties influencing exposure, kinetics, and hazard assessment.
• Focus on six key elements: exposure potential, dissolution, transformation, accumulation, genotoxicity, and immunotoxicity.

Main Results:

• The strategy guides the prioritization of nanomaterial applications based on risk.
• Identifies critical nanospecific factors affecting risk assessment.
• Highlights areas where nanospecific grouping, read-across, and (Q)SAR tools can be applied.

Conclusions:

• The proposed strategy facilitates the identification of high-risk nanomaterial applications.
• It points towards necessary data generation for regulatory acceptance of nanospecific tools.
• Enables future feasibility assessment for advanced risk assessment methodologies.