Suchergebnisse

The Sponsorship Programme is the central testing programme of the ⁠OECD⁠ Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN) launched in 2007. It was called into being to create the conditions for a coordinated approach between the member countries with regard to the safety of manufactured nanomaterials. The WPMN brings together 30 member countries of the OECD and the EU Commission. Some non-member countries are also represented, as are organisations from industry and from standardisation and environmental associations. The idea behind the OECD Sponsorship Programme was to collate data on selected and precisely described manufactured nanomaterials. The intention was thereby to obtain information on their physicochemical properties, behaviour and effects on humans and the environment, and to demonstrate the relationships between them. In this process Germany joined forces with France as joint "Lead Sponsors" for nTiO2. This report summarizes the results of the Sponsorship Programme on ecotoxicology and environmental behavior of nanoscale titanium dioxide of the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN).

Das Sponsorship Programm ist das zentrale Testprogramm der 2007 gegründeten ⁠OECD⁠ Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN). Diese wurde ins Leben gerufen, um einen zwischen den Mitgliedsstaaten koordinierten Ansatz zu Sicherheitsfragen (z.B. die Anwendbarkeit von OECD Prüfrichtlinien) für technisch hergestellte Nanomaterialien zu ermöglichen. An der WPMN sind neben 30 OECD-Mitgliedsstaaten auch die Europäische Kommission, BIAC und verschiedene andere Nichtregierungsorganisationen beteiligt. Die Idee des OECD Sponsorship Programms war es, Daten zu ausgewählten und präzise beschriebenen, technisch hergestellten Nanomaterialien zusammen zu tragen. Auf diese Weise erhielt man Informationen zu physikalisch-chemischen Eigenschaften und Verhalten und Effekten auf Mensch und Umwelt. Deutschland war in diesem Prozess zusammen mit Frankreich hauptverantwortlich für die Datenerhebung zu nanoskaligem Titandioxid. Dieser Bericht stellt die Ergebnisse des Sponsorship Programms zur Ökotoxikologie und zum Umweltverhalten von nanoskaligem Titandioxid der OECD WPMN zusammen.

AbstractAdvanced materials, and nanomaterials, are promising for healthcare applications and are in particular in the spotlight of medical innovation since rapidly developed nano-formulated vaccines provide relief in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Further increased rapid growth is to be expected as more and more products are in development and reach the market, beneficial for human health. However, the human body is not a dead end and these products are likely to enter the environment, whereas their fate and effects in the environment are unknown. This part of the life-cycle of advanced medicinal products tends to be overlooked, if the perspective is human-centered and excludes the connectedness of human activity with, and consequences for our environment. Gaps are reviewed that exist in awareness, perspective taking, inclusion of environmental concerns into research and product development and also in available methodologies and regulatory guidance. To bridge these gaps, possible ways forward start to emerge, that could help to find a more integrative way of assessing human and environmental safety for advanced material medicinal products and nanomedicines.

The position paper discusses the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for the global economy and geopolitics, for the countries of the Global South and for international environmental and sustainability policy. On this basis, the paper proposes approaches for a substantive reorientation of international environmental and sustainability policy. For example, the nexus of environment and health should be given more attention and the resilience of economic and social systems should be established as a requirement. Measures are needed to deal with the current pandemic, to prevent further pandemics and to further develop international environmental and sustainability policy.

Das Positionspapier erläutert die Folgen der Corona-Pandemie für die Weltwirtschaft und die Geopolitik, für die Länder des globalen Südens sowie für die internationale Umwelt- und Nachhaltigkeitspolitik. Auf dieser Grundlage werden Ansätze zur inhaltlichen Neuausrichtung der internationalen Umwelt- und Nachhaltigkeitspolitik vorgeschlagen. So soll etwa der Nexus von Umwelt und Gesundheit mehr Beachtung finden und die Resilienz der wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Systeme als eine Anforderung etabliert werden. Maßnahmen sind erforderlich zum Umgang mit der aktuellen Pandemie, zur Vermeidung weiterer Pandemien sowie zur Fortentwicklung der internationalen Umwelt- und Nachhaltigkeitspolitik.

The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly and fiercely changed social life around the world. Besides the diverse, in part drastic negative consequences, the crisis has also produced situations and pictures that seem utopian in "normal" times. Some of these impacts will soon fade away, others are very likely to continue in the longer term. The pandemic has thus changed the social context for environmental action. Against this background, this discussion paper deals with the following two questions: Which social impacts of the pandemic are relevant for environmental policy? And how should environmental policy react to these changes?

Die Covid-19-Pandemie hat das gesellschaftliche Leben plötzlich und heftig verändert. Neben den vielfältigen, teilweise gravierenden negativen Folgen der Pandemie hat die Krise auch Situationen und Bilder erzeugt, die in "normalen" Zeiten utopisch erscheinen. Einige der Folgen werden sich verflüchtigen, andere sehr wahrscheinlich längerfristig in die Zukunft hineinwirken. Die Pandemie hat dadurch den sozialen Kontext für umweltpolitisches Handeln verändert. Vor diesem Hintergrund geht dieser Diskussionsbeitrag zwei Fragen nach: Welche gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen der Pandemie sind umweltpolitisch relevant? Und wie könnten und sollten umweltpolitische Akteure darauf reagieren?

This report summarizes the contents and outcomes of the Scientific Stakeholder Meeting on Nanomaterials in the Environment which took place on the 10th and 11th October 2017 at the headquarters of the German Environment Agency (UBA) in Dessau-Rosslau, Germany. The meeting was hosted by UBA and financed by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety. The meeting focused on regulatory relevant results of German and European research projects on nanomaterials in the environment which are carried out or finalised in the current years. By this, it gave a forum to present the state of the knowledge on environmental nanosafety in a regulatory context as well as to discuss the scientific results and their regulatory relevance between affected stakeholders. Therefore, the meeting particularly addressed representatives of science, industry, risk assessors, regulatory experts, and NGOs. It included key note talks, invited platform presentations as well as poster presentations. A Knowledge Café provided the opportunity to discuss selected topics with regard to environmental safety of nanomaterials in smaller groups. The meeting was closed with a discussion on the lessons learned highlighting the outcomes of the meeting by the views of different stakeholders.

The implementation of a nanoproduct register as an instrument to increase the transparency on the use of nanomaterials in the EU and to ensure the regulatory oversight on nanomaterials has been discussed for quite a time. Reasons to implement a register are the uncertainties concerning the evaluation of the possible risks of nanomaterials for human health and the environment and the lack of knowledge of consumers and authorities regarding the use and concentration of nanomaterials in products. In June 2012 the German Federal Environment Agency has published a "Concept of a European Register of Products Containing Nanomaterials" (ENPR). According to the concept the manufacturer and importer of nanomaterial containing products with a likely exposure of nanomaterials to human beings and the environment should notify them to a single European register. It is the aim of this study to analyze the impacts of such an ENPR. Therefore sectors and companies concerned by an ENPR were identified and the number of notifiers and notifications, categories of substances, concerned mixtures and articles were estimated. Based on that result the administrative costs for notifiers and the competent authority for an ENPR were quantified and the benefits of an ENPR for public authorities, consumers and notifiers described.

The project "Thematic Conferences on Advanced Materials" aimed at supporting the German Authorities in structuring the field of advanced materials and identifying work priorities related to chemical safety. In the first part of the project, information on advanced materials was gathered via an extensive literature review, an online expert survey and expert interviews. In a second part, three international conferences were organised, of which one was separated into two online events, to invite stakeholders in the field to reflect on the research outcomes and involve in a discussion about chemical safety of advanced materials. Overall, the project initiated discussions about advanced materials at global, EU and national level and promoted an active reflection on the potential safety challenges and sustainability, amongst others due to lack of data, methods and coverage of advanced materials in current regulation. The report provides an overview of the work process and summarises the main discussion issues at the conferences.

The aim of the present report was to obtain an overview of current strategies and methods for the detection of (manufactured) nanomaterials (NMs) in the environmental compartments surface water, soil, sediment, air, biota and sewage sludge. Based on this several recommendations for future needs of action in the short to long term are derived in order to establish a standardized detection of NMs in the environment that is necessary in order to check the pollution in the environment, to check whether or not potential risk management measures take the intended effect and to validate NM release models with real data. A literature review was performed using predominantly "Web of Science" and screening for literature, such as review articles summarising the state of the art of NM detection techniques for environmental samples. More than 160 scientific publications were evaluated concerning NM detection methods. Results of the literature survey clearly show that a combination of detection techniques is necessary in order to detect and identify NMs, and to differentiate between natural NMs and manufactured NMs. The crucial step is accurate sample preparation for the selected detection method which means in most cases complete removal of the (disturbing) matrix and transfer of the NM in appropriate media for measurement. So far field studies in terms of detection of unknown amounts of unspecific engineered NMs in natural samples are rare and only existing for a few compartments, mainly surface waters. Hence, it is concluded that the need of action is focused on the development, standardization and validation of existing methods in a combinatory approach.