Making Nanomaterials Safer by Design?

Excerpt

Safer by design, safe by design, safety by design (hereafter SbD for all versions): These slightly different terms all point towards a concept that has been becoming increasingly relevant for the development and risk assessment of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) in recent years [1‐6]. The common idea behind these different SbD terms is to integrate knowledge of nanomaterials’ potential adverse effects on human health, animals and the environment into the process of designing nanomaterials and nanoproducts—and to engineer these undesirable effects out of the respective materials or products. This entails that functionality and safety be considered in an integrated way right from the earliest phases of the research and innovation process. SbD can thus be distinguished from a risk assessment paradigm which seeks to address and regulate nanomaterials downstream, i.e. at a point in time when new materials and products are fully developed and ready for market. Consequently, the popularity of SbD approaches can be (partly) attributed to the fact that with regard to ENM these downstream regulatory measures have proven notoriously difficult to implement, due in part to the lack of adequate (eco)toxicology data. SbD’s promise of anticipating safety issues at the design stage hence appears to be a potential avenue to circumvent the difficulties of risk regulation. …