HARMLESS @ SweNanoSafe workshop
Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) is based on the consideration and minimization of uncertainties and risks to human health and the environment from an early stage of the innovation process and throughout the lifecycle of the innovation product. The concept of SSbD stems from the development of safe-by-design approaches within the nanosafety field (e.g. in projects such as NANoREG and ProSafe), and is a component of the Safe(r) Innovation Approach (SIA) for more sustainable nanomaterials and nano-enabled products, which was recently described in detail by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
SweNanoSafe is a forum for collaboration between academia, authorities, businesses and other organisations that have an interest in sharing knowledge and experiences as well as discussing, developing and influencing the implementation of nanosafety in society. Their main goal is to achieve the safe handling of nanomaterials at all levels that protect human health and the environment.
Under the tilte “Safe and Sustainable by Design: a prerequisite for achieving a circular economy”, SweNanoSafe organised on 29th November 2021 a workshop aiming to orient Swedish authorities in the ongoing development and implementation of the SSbD concept to face regulatory challenges related to nano- (and advanced) materials with the purpose of advancing circular economy.
More than 80 participants from Swedish authorities and other actors involved in sustainability, nanosafety, the European chemicals strategy, and circular economy (including academia and representatives of other European nanosafety initiatives/platforms) joint the workshop.
HARMLESS work was well represented in the workshop:
Andrea Haase, from German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), gave an oral presentation in the workshop on “A regulatory perspective on Safe and Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) approaches for advanced materials”, highlighting the role of HARMLESS in the research of advance materials.
Roland Grafström, from Karolinska Institute (KI), gave also an oral presentation introducing the ongoing European SSbD projects and their high-throughput testing approaches.
Penny Nymark, also from Karolinska Institute (KI), talked about the importance of digitalized and reusable data for SSbD of nano- and advanced materials.
Program here: SSbD-workshop-November-2021-final-agenda-for-web.pdf (ki.se)
Some highlights of the presentations from Andrea Haase, Roland Grafström and Penny Nymark:
