The responsible development of new nanomaterials and nano-enabled products requires that potential risks are understood and managed before harms occur. Yet, predictive tools for anticipating environmental and human health risk are in their early stages of development. Until such assessment tools are available, there is a clear need for robust screening methodologies to inform decision-making related to nanomaterial risk management in regulatory agencies and industry. This paper presents the results of a two-day workshop of nanotechnology experts aimed at developing a risk-screening framework for emerging nanomaterials. Drawing upon expertise in nanotoxicology, human exposure, and environmental fate and transport, participants developed a decision-support framework relating key nanomaterial physicochemical characteristics to important hazard and exposure indicators. The framework that we present here provides the foundation for development of an open-sourced and adaptable tool to aid in risk screening and for identifying opportunities to re-engineer products to minimize risk.

Nanomaterial risk screening: A structured decision making (SDM) approach

248th National Meeting (2014)

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