European nanomaterial legislation in the past 20 years - Closing the final gaps.

In 2004, the potential societal implications related to nanotechnology were highlighted in an influential report by the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering (RS & RAE). It was made clear that legislation is an important tool to tackle the challenges related to nanomaterials and a list of recommendations were put forward. Shortly after, the European Commission also proposed a list of recommendations on how to handle nanomaterial challenges and adopted the so-called "incremental approach", describing that current legislations should be adapted, where relevant, to handle nanomaterials. Now almost 20 years have passed and it seems relevant to take stock and investigate how legislations have been adapted to tackle nano-specific challenges. In this review, we analyze key pieces of European legislations relevant to nanomaterials and assess to what extent these legislations compare with the original recommendations from 2004 by the RS & RAE and the European Commission. We uncover the cross-cutting challenges that remain and provide recommendations on next steps that should be taken to address the risks of nanomaterials. For each recommendation, we assessed whether it was met to a high, medium or low degree by conducting targeted literature searches at Web of Science, screening legislations, guidance documents, databases etc., and applying expert judgement. We found that >90% of the recommendations put forward in 2004 by the RS & RAE and the European Commission have been either met to a high degree (13 out of 29) or met to a medium degree (14 out of 29). This suggests important advancements in the field of nanosafety. At the same time, it is important to address the concerns still left partly or fully unsolved. Such efforts entail e.g. further development of measuring instruments and standardised characterization and risk assessment methods for nanomaterials, application of a uniform nanomaterial definition, maximization of containment of free nanomaterials until hazards assessed/handled and elimination/minimisation of unintentional nanomaterial emission. Furthermore, we recommend prioritising future efforts to ensure enforcement and implementation of existing nano-specific provisions, as well as revision, where needed, of legislations that currently do not account for nanomaterials, such as the Waste Framework Directive.

Effects of interactions between natural organic matter and aquatic organism degradation products on the transformation and dissolution of cobalt and nickel-based nanoparticles in synthetic freshwater.

Expanding applications and production of engineered nanoparticles lead to an increased risk for their environmental dispersion. Systematic knowledge of surface transformation and dissolution of nanoparticles is essential for risk assessment and regulation establishment. Such aspects of Co- and Ni-based nanoparticles including metals, oxides, and solution combustion synthesized metal nanoparticles (metal cores with carbon shells) were investigated upon environmental interaction with organic matter, simulated by natural organic matter (NOM) and degradation products from zooplankton and algae (eco-corona biomolecules, EC) in freshwater (FW). The presence of NOM and EC in FW results in negative surface charges of the nanoparticles reduces the extent of nanoparticles agglomeration, and increases concentration, mainly due to the surface adsorption of carboxylate groups of the organic matter. The dissolution of the Co-based nanoparticles was for all conditions (FW, FW with NOM or EC) higher than the Ni-based, except for Co3O4 being nearly non-soluble. The surface transformation and dissolution of nanoparticles are highly exposure and time-dependent, and surface- and environment specific. Therefore, no general correlation was observed between dissolution and, particle types, surface conditions, or EC/NOM adsorption. This underlines the importance of thorough investigations of nanoparticles adsorption/desorption, degradation, and exposure scenarios for developing regulatory relevant protocols and guidelines.

Unfolding the science behind policy initiatives targeting plastic pollution.

The intensive global plastic production, use and associated plastic pollution have caused concern for the potential risks to human health and the environment. This has led to the adoption of numerous regulatory initiatives aiming to combat plastic pollution. Despite the considerable regulatory activity in the field of plastic, it appears that there is still debate about the actual risks of plastic to humans and the environment. This raises the question of to what extent the current plastic regulation is evidence-based, a declared ambition in the European Union. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate to what extent key policy initiatives targeting plastic pollution are based on scientific evidence. Selection of initiatives was based on expert elicitation accounting for the opinions of persons involved in the development of the policy initiatives, and a thorough assessment of the historical development of plastic pollution regulation, with focus on their importance both with respect to regulation of plastics as well as their historical importance as drivers for societal actions on plastic pollution. We find that scientific evidence appears to be generally present in the scientific foundation for the policy initiatives analysed in this study. All the initiatives are supported by scientific articles and reports about among others plastic sources, ecological impacts of plastic production and consumption patterns. Marine litter monitoring data was found to contribute to the evidence base for 4 out of the 6 policy initiatives and thereby appears to be one of the central scientific drivers behind the societal actions on plastic pollution. Other scientific tools applied when shaping the policy initiatives include risk assessment, impact assessment and life cycle assessment. Despite the prevalent consideration and application of scientific evidence, there seems to be a broad recognition in the preparatory work of the initiatives that there is still a lot of uncertainty related to determining the harm of plastic pollution. In these cases, taking precautionary actions seems however to be justified, recalling not least the precautionary principle. As the issue of plastic pollution is complex and still subject to uncertainty, it seems important both that policy initiatives allow for flexibility and continuing adjustment to the on-going knowledge generation and that the scientific community provides the needed research to continue the science-informed policy development.

The need for environmental regulation of tires: Challenges and recommendations.

The interest in tire wear particles (TWPs), generated from abrasion of tires, have gained traction over the past few years, both in regards to quantifying particulate emissions, leaching of different compounds, toxicity, and analytical methods. The life of a tire, from cradle to end-of-life, crosses over different scenarios during its lifetime and transcends environmental compartments and legislative areas, underlining the need for a collective approach. Sustainability for a tire encompasses the use of raw materials, recycling of raw materials, circular economy and material sourcing. The tire industry is currently making significant efforts towards a greener and more sustainable production considering reduction of CO2-emissions, recycling, material sources and implementing the use of biomass from plants rather than oil-derived alternatives. In this paper, we aim to analyze and discuss the need for environmental regulation of tires in order to provide a series of targeted recommendations for future legislation. Our study shows that the numerous regulations related to tires focus on chemicals, manufacturing, raw materials, use of tires on roads, waste handling, safety and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in different life cycle stages of a tire. However, none directly addresses the contribution of TWPs to the environment. Despite the overall good intentions of the existing regulations, there is a lack of focus on the compounds that partition from the tire and disperse in the environment, their mixture effects, and the transformative products from the parent compounds in the environment. Therefore, a renewed focus is needed on risk assessment of complex mixtures like TWPs. Thus, transparency in regard to use of chemicals in TWP, mixtures, minimization of emissions, and capture of particulate pollution should be a priority.

Long-term effects of sediment-associated silver nanoparticles and silver nitrate on the deposit-feeding polychaete Capitella teleta.

Aquatic sediments are predicted to be an important sink for released silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Knowing the long-term effects of AgNPs on benthic deposit-feeders is therefore an important step towards assessing their potential environmental risks. The aim of this study was to examine the effects on survival, growth and reproduction of the deposit-feeding polychaete Capitella teleta exposed for ten weeks to sediment-associated un-coated AgNPs or silver nitrate (AgNO3). C. teleta exhibited tolerance towards exposure to both AgNPs and AgNO3. Significant effects were observed for percentage of pairs that reproduced as well as worm growth after eight weeks, but the effects did not show a clear concentration- or Ag type-dependent pattern. Further investigations of long-term effects of un-coated AgNPs in additional sediment-dwelling organisms are needed and should involve comparisons to coated AgNPs.